PRIVATE LIBRARY OF A. L. SCHAFER OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR MODERN THOUGHT AND TRADITIONAL FAITH. Crown 8o, net, 50 cents ; by mail, 60 centi SOME MORAL REASONS FOR BELIEF IN THE GODHOOD OF JESUS CHRIST. i6mo, net, JJ centi FRANCIS ASBURY. i6mo, net, z$ cent*; by mail, 30 cent* CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE BY GEORGE PRESTON MAINS \( THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1914, by GEORGE P. MAINS TO MY WIFE, WHOSE ARTISTIC TASTE LENDS CHARM TO MY HOME; WHOSE HABITUAL CHEERFULNESS MAKES MY HOME LIFE RADI- ANT; AND WHOSE WOMANLY LOVE AND LOYALTY HEARTEN ME FOR ALL TOILS: THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED CONTENTS PAGE PREPACK ix PART FIRST THE BOOK'S PORTAL I. The Incomprehensible Christ 5 PART SECOND IDEAL VERSUS ACHIEVEMENT II. The Church: The Church Urban and Rural 23 III. The Church and the Poor 43 PART THIRD FACTORS OF LIMITATION IV. Rational Readjustments 57 V. Biblical Criticism 81 VI. Secularized Education 101 VII. Educated Leadership 119 VIII. Plutocracy 135 IX. Socialism 157 PART FOURTH FACTORS PROPHETIC X. Christianity's Leavening Life 183 XI. Christian Missions 211 XII. The Inworking God 229 XIII. The Divineness of Man 245 XIV. Modern Prophets 265 XV. Prophetic Vistas 287 XVI. The Abiding Church 325 BIBLIOGRAPHY 345 vii PREFACE WHILE I could covet for this book a wide welcome, an interdenominational welcome, from both the min- istry and the laity, in its preparation I have had not less in mind the lay than the ministerial reader. I have been led, sanely and constructively I hope, to discuss many phases of modern fact and thought, and in my various processes I think it could be only helpful if a large constituency of thinking laymen were to keep me company. I do not for a moment assume that all such readers would give consent to all the positions of the book, but it is my confidence that all would re- ceive some benefit; and it might not be of least value that the attention of readers should be newly challenged at the very points, if any, which seem to awaken dissent. The theme of this volume is the Church? Yes; but something far other and more. The central thought around which the entire discussion revolves is the world-kingdom of Jesus Christ. I have elected for the title of the book, as covering perhaps its conception more perfectly than any other phrasing, this CHRIS- TIANITY AND THE NEW AGE. This title is exceedingly broad indeed, "broader than the measure of man's mind." Any discussion of such a subject must prove necessarily and inevitably frag- mentary how fragmentary can be appreciated by none so keenly as by those who have seriously attempted C x PREFACE a study of Christianity in its relations to present world- movements. One who has made a tour of the world has seen much. He has felt the swell of measureless seas, has had a vision of vast landscapes, has looked upon mighty mountains lakes, and rivers; he has visited the chief capitals, has looked upon the most famed creations of genius; he has been indescribably impressed with the universality of man's religiousness as witnessed by the many faiths, both ancient and those of more recent origin, which are diversely represented in the civilizations; he has observed with greatest interest the diverse languages, literatures, art, social customs, laws, governments va- riously characteristic of all the human world. But no one realizes better than this discerning traveler that vast and intrinsically interesting world-territories still lie outside the range of his personal observation and exploration. As I lay down my pen with the con- cluding chapters of this book, I have a not dissimilar feeling. I have attempted to touch, helpfully as I could devoutly hope, a few great features of what is really an exhaustless theme. My studies as herein set forth have proven to me most richly rewarding. They have brought to me an expanding vision, an inspirational quickening of faith, great confirmation of fundamental Christian conviction, a magnified confidence and assurance that Christianity is the one supreme and all-prophetic factor of human history. It is impossible for me to be pessimistic with reference to the final outcome of Christianity. PREFACE ri God's in his heaven: All's right with the world. If this little couplet of Browning, so far as the present is concerned, is not real history, it is a sure prophecy of what is to be. The several chapters of this book, while prepared with reference to due sequence of thought, may, for the most numbers, each be read as a distinct essay upon the subject which it discusses. The sources of suggestion from which this volume has come are many. Very much of the substance has been for so long my own intellectual property, as to make it impossible for me to indicate sources. At the close of the volume will be found a chapter of Bibliography. All works referred to in this list have been more or less consulted in my preparation. I am especially indebted to Dr. David G. Downey, official Book Editor, and to Dr. Henry C. Jennings, General Publishing Agent, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for their critical reading of the manuscript, and for valuable suggestions as to its final form. In committing this work to the public, if I may ever know that to its readers it has brought a tithe of the benefit with which its preparation has enriched me, I shall find reason in such knowledge for grateful satis- faction. New York, August, 1914. PART FIRST THE BOOK'S PORTAL THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST Jesus! the name high over all, In hell, or earth, or sky; Angels and men before it fall, And devils fear and fly. Christus Redemptor has, with atoning sacrifice, brought forgiveness of sins to the great company of the redeemed. Christus Consolator has stanched the tears of the world's sorrow and filled the hearts of the afflicted and the wronged with immortal hope. Christus Consummator will establish the kingdom of God in the hearts of men and transform human society at last into an order of final perfection. DAVID J. HILL, LL.D. Humanity is driving stormily on its perilous way, and no man knows from history or observation what the end will be. If we really think about the subject, the only reassuring thing is the optimistic teaching of Jesus Christ based on his revelation of God. If God indeed be such as Jesus reported, if he be our God and Father, if his name is Love, if he has made man for immortal life and blessedness with himself, then, of course, all must be right with the world, and the end must be divine. But on any other view, the only preservation against deep anxiety, if not despair, is simply not to think. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ can be trusted even when we do not understand him; but if we seek to know God apart from his Son, we are at the beginning of confusion and sorrow. BORDEN P. BOWNE, LL.D. CHAPTER I THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST HOWEVER inadequately, or with what failure of directness, the engrossing themes discussed in this and subsequent chapters may be treated, I could wish it understood from the first that this book is written in no spirit of pessimism. While seeking frankly to assess the obverse facts and conditions in current Christian history, I find neither in my fears nor in the outlook place for any note of despair. This world belongs to God, and finally its last and apparently most forbidding province will come under his scepter. The influence and power of Christianity alone will bring to pass this sublime consummation. Christianity, with Christ at its center, its ever-inspiring and energizing life, is something immeasurably larger, greater, and more divine than the world has yet come to apprehend. Its larger meaning and possibilities are one thing; its various institutions, however time-honored, which have been associated with its life, are quite an- other thing. It is a common habit, and in large measure an infirmity, of the human mind to lay vital stress upon institutions and creeds which have attached them- selves as the exponents and explanation of the great movements of history. Thus, in the divinest of all historic movements, Christianity itself, there have grown up great institutions, creeds, and usages. These in 5 6 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE turn have taken an enormous hold upon the imagination, faith, veneration, and affection of the believing Chris- tian world. These various minor factors have in the lives of very many so come into the foreground of their thought as to have a meaning well-nigh synonymous with Christianity itself. But this view makes the fatal mistake of putting form, the ecclesiastical organism, in place of the vitalizing spirit of Christianity itself. All institutions, creeds, and usages are but vehicles, instruments. Christ alone is the life of his Church. He alone is worthy to command our worship and love. Christ is the SON OF GOD. He is this in the preeminent sense; in a sense which is not true of any and all other beings. He is the one revealer of God to man. He is equally the revealer to man of what God would have man be, of what God purposes that he shall be. Con- cerning the supreme problems of the redemption and salvation of humanity, problems with which unlimited divinity alone can deal, Christ furnishes the only solu- tion. For the mission of the world's redemption from evil, for the final bringing of man to his divinest possi- bilities, Christ is invested with all authority, having at command all the powers of the moral universe. It would, then, be treason to assume or to fear that he could finally fail in his work. Institutions, creeds, customs, may be superseded, but his kingdom shall move on, waxing stronger until its final consummation. While the name of Christ is acknowledged as the greatest of names, there is proof abundant that as yet the world has very little comprehended his greatness. He is the one transcendent and indescribable Personality THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST 7 of History. The four literary fragments 1 called the Gospels are, as sources of information concerning his real character and teaching, of far greater value than all the learned and critical lives of him which have been written in recent times. But a careful reading of the Gospels themselves will impress us that their authors in seeking to picture the Christ were struggling with an impossible task. The men originally companioned with Christ only very imperfectly understood him. Their feeling toward him was one of wonder and per- plexity, mingled at times with a sense of overwhelming admiration and love. In assessing this estimate allow- ance is to be made for the spiritual illumination which rested upon these men at Pentecost and afterward. But the Spirit in his mission as inspirer has to reckon with the limitations of human character. These early companions and chroniclers of Christ when in possession of the largest measure of inspiration possible to them, were still men of marked limitations. The only rational accounting for the matchless character glimpsed to us in the four Gospels is that a transcendent Being, one who had come forth from God, and whose glory they beheld, companioned himself with men. There was that about Jesus Christ which was immeasurably larger and more glorious than any who knew him best were able to comprehend. He was to them inexpressible. As Schweitzer says, "They were dealing with the Niagara force of an indescribable character." Saint Paul, some of whose writings are the oldest 1 "Fragments" in the sense that they record but a mere fraction of the words and deeds of Jesu. See John 21. 25. 8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE in the New Testament, was a man rarely gifted, and of deepest spiritual insight. His own transformed life was a miracle. His experience of Christ's revelation in his life was an event so overwhelming to his con- sciousness that its marvel never lessened upon his view. There is no more impressive psychological chapter in Christian history than that which records the con- version and the after apostolic life of Saul of Tarsus. No spiritual experience was ever more vivid than his. No intellect more mighty than his ever struggled with the problems of the incarnation. As a witness to the transforming power and inspiring hopes of Christ's gospel, none greater than Saint Paul has ever arisen. But as a theologian even this greatest of the apostles was never able fully to emancipate himself from the habits of his Jewish training, nor from the impressions of his Roman citizenship. Saint Paul may well hold undisputed the first place among historic Christians. But even he, when he stood in the presence of Christ, felt that he knew only in part. To him the very love of Christ was something passing knowledge. In Christ he felt that there were heights and depths and lengths and breadths which he had never explored. Paul fairly burdens all language at his command in extolling Christ's dominion on earth, in heaven, and for eternity. His imagination was continually haunted by qualities ineffable and inexpressible inhering in his Lord. He says, "And without controversy" by com- mon consent, without debate it is to be admitted by all, and in this he includes himself, that "great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST 9 justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Paul, with all his wealth of revelation, would be the last man to claim exhaustive knowledge of Jesus Christ. In the period of the Church Fathers, beginning with the origin of the Apostles' Creed, whenever that was, and including Augustine, a vastly exhaustive study was given to the subject of the Trinity and to the person of Christ. Lessing, the brilliant rationalist, the man whom Macaulay declared to be "beyond dispute the first critic in Europe," in speaking of the patristic develop- ment of orthodox Christology, confessed that he knew "nothing in the world in which human ingenuity showed and exercised itself in a greater manner." When the Athanasian, really the Augustinian, creed reached sub- stantially its final form, three great ecumenical councils had struggled with and pronounced upon the doctrinal problems of Christ and his relations to the Trinity. The Athanasian creed, studied article by article, and sen- tence by sentence, reveals an ingenuity and penetration worthy of the greatest thought; and probably no abler thought was ever brought to bear upon any abstruse sub- ject than that which wrought in the making of this creed. Athanasius, Saint Paul excepted, was the ablest man whom the Christian Church had produced up to his time. The creed bearing his name undoubtedly re- flected his views upon the great subject of the Trinity and the relations of Christ thereto. For a long time it was assumed that he was the author of this creed. But a more critical study of the history has shown beyond io CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE doubt that in its final shaping Augustine had more to do than had Athanasius. Augustine was the greatest Christian mind of his century. He was a foremost philosopher. He knew experimentally much about the world on its evil side. His conversion to Christianity seems little less miraculous than that of Saint Paul. His essential greatness is indicated by the fact that his utterances dominated the theology of the Christian, especially the Western, Church for twelve centuries. It is evident that the historic creeds were born in the throes of great thought. It would be unseemly for any single mind to utter itself in quarrelsome dissent from pronouncements which for many ages have com- manded for themselves a reverent consensus of Christian faith. These creeds express as perfectly as it is possible for the human intellect to do the measurable facts con- cerning the divine Trinity, and the status of Jesus Christ in his relation thereto. As historic crystallizations of orthodoxy they have doubtless served a great purpose in preserving the fundamentals of a common Christian faith, and in giving to the Church familiarity with noble forms of reverent belief. But, when all acknowledgment by the Church, is intelligently made for these monumental products of the great minds of its early history, it still remains to be said that not all the creeds combined have taken the measurement of Jesus Christ. There is a divinity a transcendency, an infinite indefinable something in his character that forever refuses reduction to the meas- urements of human thought. Applying the words of THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST n Loofs to Christ, we may with him say, "It is absolutely impossible for our reason to comprehend God: his eternity, his creation and maintenance of all things, his omnipotence and omniscience are absolutely incom- prehensible for us." 1 More than eighteen centuries lie between us and the New Testament writers. These centuries have made great history. Christ is still alive. He is now vastly more alive, immeasurably more regnant in human thought, than in any preceding time. Within these centuries civilizations, religions, institutions, philosophies, systems of learning have perished. Christ has survived them all. Within these centuries new civilizations, new philosophies, new sciences, new inventions, new learning have changed the face of the world, have vastly increased human knowledge, have given new direction to thought and conduct. Yet in all this unmeasured revolution, in all the mighty progress of knowledge and enlighten- ment, Christ has received steady and increasing exalta- tion in the world's thought and affairs. There is no history parallel to this, none so wondrous. It is worthy of special emphasis that within the last seventy-five years the most acute thought has been focused upon Jesus Christ. The keenest, most search- ing and relentless processes of analysis have been applied to his history and character. These years have, been preeminently the period of scientific methods. In this time science has placed at the command of learning the most effective appliances for the ascertainment of truth. It is safe to say that not a single method, not i Dr. Priedrich Loofr, What Ii the Troth about Jeu Chrot? 12 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE a single test which the new learning has made available has been neglected in the critical scrutiny that has been centered upon Jesus Christ. No subject has received more intense, more capable, or more continuous study than has been given to this supreme character of the New Testament. If Lessing were living to-day, he might, in review of the recent thought which has been devoted to Jesus, parallel his tribute to that earlier period of thought, and say again, "There is nothing in the world in which human ingenuity shows and ex- presses itself in a greater manner." But if we look at Christ to-day, in the present stage of ever-living discussion that centers about him a dis- cussion that promises never to lessen we discover that his widening supremacy over the world's thought is increasingly acknowledged. In the first half of the last century Straus published his Life of Christ. It came to Christian scholarship as a brilliant and stunning surprise. It was a herald of consternation and fear to the world of Christian thought. Christian scholars were not prepared for the onslaught, and for a time they considered the phenomenon with bated breath. But Strauss himself, a brilliant scholar and intellectually great, lived to a dreary and disappointed old age. And when his life was sere and spent he himself uttered the bitter lamentation over his rationalistic Life of Christ that it was a thing which had "utterly gone to leaves." Renan, scholarly, with great insight, brilliantly rhe- torical, wrote his Life of Christ with a distinct inten- tion to rob him of divinity. To Renan's credit it must be said that the more deeply he studied the character THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST 13 of his subject, the more was he himself captivated by its ineffable beauties. He pays eulogies to Christ which would seem properly rendered only to divinity. He says: "He is the common honor of all who share a com- mon humanity. His glory does not even consist in being relegated out of history; we render him a truer worship in showing that all history is incomprehensible without him." Again he says: "He founded that high spiritualism which for centuries has filled souls with joy in the midst of this vale of tears. . . . Thanks to Jesus, the dullest existence, that most absorbed by sad or humiliating duties, has had its glimpse of heaven. In our busy civilizations the remembrance of the free life of Galilee has been like perfume from another world, like the 'dew of Hermon,' which has prevented drouth and barrenness from entirely invading the field of God." He finally closes his book with this statement: "What- ever may be the unexpected phenomena of the future, Jesus will not be surpassed. His worship will constantly renew its youth, the tale of his life will cause ceaseless tears, his sufferings will soften the best hearts; all the ages will proclaim that, among the sons of men, there is none born who is greater than Jesus." The great Frenchman is dead. His book rests on the shelves of the libraries. His attack on Jesus, an attack in which he yields every tribute of admiration, utterly failed of its purpose. Renan with all his genius failed because he was dealing falsely with a Personality whose divine largeness he failed to apprehend. Jesus, in the mean- time, has moved forward on his triumphal way with no scath upon his garments, no hurt upon his person. i 4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE Germany is a nation representing great scholarship. And German scholarship has undertaken to the last degree to find a purely rational status for the person and history of Jesus Christ. Perhaps no single volume gives a better survey of attempts in this field than Albert Schweitzer's Quest of the Historical Jesus. This is a great book. In its preface the author says: "When, at some future day, our period of civilization shall lie, closed and completed, before the eyes of later genera- tions, German theology will stand out as a great, a unique phenomenon in the mental and spiritual life of our time. For nowhere save in the German temper- ament can there be found in the same perfection the living complex of conditions and factors of philosophic thought, critical acumen, historic insight, and religious feeling without which no deep theology is possible. And the greatest achievement of German theology is the critical investigation of the life of Christ." This book traces the processes of German critical thought toward Christ from Reimarus, born in 1694, to William Wrede, who died in 1907. It is of great interest carefully to note the varying views of Christ which have been put forth by the long line now all dead of German scholars. All of these men were plodders, many of them brilliant, some of them friends, others enemies of evangelical Christianity. Their views were often diverse, the conclusions of one frequently in direct conflict with those of another. After reading it from cover to cover, one lays down this full, rich volume with the feeling that not all of these thinkers combined have said the last word about Jesus the Christ, THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST 15 not all of them together have given a complete state- ment of his mission, nor the adequate picture of his character. But Christ none the less lives, and still challenges the fresh scrutiny of both scholar and genius. The spirit of the hostile critic was never more virulent nor determined than now. There are those, and they will probably have their successors for indefinite time to come, some of them in command of great resources, who seek, and who will continue to seek, to destroy the very historicity of Jesus Christ, and thus to destroy the foundations of Christianity itself. These men are not greatly to be feared. They cannot succeed. They are like those who would beat the stars out of the sky. Christ is infinitely beyond them. When they have done their worst, it will be but as the stout sea wave which utterly shatters itself against the immovable rock. The immeasurableness, the incomprehensibleness, of Jesus Christ are asserted in the fact that no progress ever surpasses him. In the complexities of a growing civiliza- tion new human needs are continuously developing, and old needs are coming into new expression and ex- pansion. Old philosophies, creeds, and traditions are outworn. Not so with Jesus. There is no social or moral want made prominent by the world's growing knowledge and experience the satisfaction of which is not discoverable in his gospel. Under the title, "The Modern Quest for a Religion," 1 Winston Churchill has recently published a most sug- gestive article. After vividly picturing the awakened sense of the age to some great working energy of the 'The Century Magazine, December, 1913. 16 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE times, an energy not material but expressing itself in the "inarticulate language of the people," and having testified to the spiritual hunger widely felt in human society, he proceeds to delineate the qualities which should characterize the kind of religion most perfectly adapted to the needs of the times. He then shows that all that could be hoped for in the most perfect religion for the meeting of human wants is already fully sup- plied in Jesus Christ. What is the meaning of that tremendous awakening in modern life of the new sense of human brotherhood, and the growing conviction that the highest life possible to any man is the life of unselfish service for his fellows? It all means that a new view of Christ's spirit and mission is entering into the vision of the age. This is not to say that Christ himself grows, but that as man grows in spiritual knowl- edge and illumination, so more and more are Christ's illimitable glories humanly apprehended. As the starry immensities have ever expanded upon man's growing knowledge, so in the moral world will the glories of Christ multiply upon the spiritual vision of the race. As the most powerful telescope yet invented reveals only the edges of the universe, so the experience of the most perfect saints has as yet only begun to apprehend his exhaustless and saving wealth. God's scheme for the world is one calling for unlimited growth for man growth in the knowledge of material things, growth in spiritual attainment and apprehension; but man will never grow to such stature of perfection as not to see in Jesus Christ a Being immeasurably transcendent to himself. THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHRIST 17 Confidence in the final success of Christ's kingdom in this world may be supreme. He has undertaken the world's redemption. His credentials for this mission are divine. All resources at the command of heaven are his. He will not fail. If either is seriously on trial before this age, it is clearly the Church and not Christ. The forms and methods of organized Chris- tianity may need to be largely revised in order to best serve the interests of the Kingdom. Before closing this discussion we shall probably see much need for this. Revision, expansion, and new adaptations are a necessity to any organism designed for perpetual use- fulness. The expanding mission of the Spirit in the world will bring about these modifications in the organic Church. In the meantime the Christian disciple may move forward in his work in the sublime confidence that comes from the consciousness of personal fellow- ship with the great Master. Jesus Christ is known by his own. The Christ of the Gospels is best appre- hended only by those in whose hearts he personally dwells. What scholarship can never discover, what philosophy can never explain, is apprehended and realized in the faith and experience of the Christian life. Christ does reveal himself in the lives of those who love and obey him. This is the reason why no hostile criticism can ever understand or disarm him. He lives, attesting his own divinity, in the hearts of growing millions whose love for him is such that if needs be they could die for him. Schweitzer, in the final summary of his book, says: "The abiding and eternal in Jesus is absolutely independent of historical knowledge and can only be 1 8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE understood by contact with his spirit, which is still at work in the world. In proportion as we have the spirit of Jesus we have the true knowledge of Jesus." Hofmann's great pictures of the Christ appeal in a marked way to universal favor. A personal friend, Dr. Henry H. Meyer, once made a visit to Hofmann at his summer home in the Saxon Alps. To his query as to the secret of Hofmann's inspiration in painting the pictures of Christ, the old man, then over eighty years of age, said: "If you ask for the testimony of my faith, I must answer that the matter of religious faith is not so simple for the thoughtful man to-day. I do not know the conditions in your country, but here in Germany the thinking man, who looks about him in an earnest quest for religious truth, and notes the social and church conditions as they really are, cannot at times escape asking himself the question, 'Does the Christian Church to-day offer to the people what they have a right to expect of it ?' There also rises the deeper question, 'Does the religion of Jesus Christ really meet the deepest needs of the human heart?' But, when I turn away from these questionings and read again the story of his life, and contemplate again his teachings, it is as though I were lifted from the valley to the broad table-land, and from thence to successive mountain heights, until I stand at last upon the highest peak, above the clouds, where all is clear and radiant with sunlight; and," he added, "it has been during these mountaintop experiences that I have seemed to behold his face and have attempted to paint his likeness." PART SECOND IDEAL VERSUS ACHIEVEMENT THE CHURCH: THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 21 At the beginning of the Divine-human Book our first glimpse of man is in a garden. It is a paradise of perfect beauty, of perfect simplicity, of perfect innocence. It is a paradise of virtue unfallen because of virtue untried. We turn to the close of the Book, and there we catch another glimpse of man in a perfect estate. We see in this vision not the beauty of innocence, but the beauty of holiness. We see not the unstable peace of virtue untried, but the established peace of virtue victorious. In the first picture we see individualistic man; in the second we see socialized man. In the first we see man unfallen, sustaining right relations to his Creator. In the second we see man redeemed, sustaining right rela- tions to God and to his fellows. The story of this marvelous human drama begins in the country; its denouement is in the city. The crown and consummation of our civilization the full coming of the kingdom of God on earth is typified not by a garden, but by a city a holy city into which shall enter nothing unclean and nothing that maketh a lie. DR. JOSIAH STRONG. There is no single factor in the advancement of righteousness and civilization which can be more influential and effective than the country church. GIFFORD PINCHOT. In all parts of the United States country life is furnished with churches. . . . These religious societies hold the key to the problem of country life. If they oppose modern socialized ideals in the country, these ideals cannot penetrate the country. If the Church undertakes constructive social service in the country, the task will be done. The Church can oppose effectively; it can support efficiently. This situation lays a vast responsibility upon all Christian Churches, especially upon those who have an educated ministry; for the future development of the country community as a good place in which to live depends upon the country church. DR. WARREN H. WILSON. 22 CHAPTER II THE CHURCH: THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL THERE is a widely prevalent view that ecclesiastical Christianity is somehow much out of joint with the times; that it is seriously failing in its required function for the enlargement of the Kingdom. This view is grave. It merits honest, searching, and fearless exam- ination. Is the view correct? Is the Church really a declining institution, something like a setting sun, long since having passed the zenith, and soon to sink down into night and darkness? If not, what is the real truth in the case? Is it possible that Christianity, even in the very presence of our uncomprehending vision, is clothing itself with new forms of life? Do we need a new viewpoint in order to test the radiance of its beauty, the majesty of its strength, the stride of its triumphs? Many facts, statistics, studied by themselves alone, undoubtedly furnish food for pessimism. These facts should not be sidetracked. Whatever truth they give us, whatever lessons they convey, should be measured fully for what they are worth. Truth is truth, whether it be for or against our cherished preferences. As Mr. Lincoln said during the war, "It is not the question whether the Lord is on our side, but whether we are on the Lord's side." Whatever our views, traditions, or convictions, we shall finally make a safe landing 23 24 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE only as we are found squarely in line with the truth. The subject of our inquiry is large and vital. Ideals for which an institution stands furnish the severest standards of measurement as to the relative success or failure of the institution itself. Christian ideals furnish the standard by which the real successes or failures of the Church itself may best be measured. Judged from this standpoint, what report must be given? We are in the twentieth century of Christian history. The leaven of Christ's kingdom has long been working in civilization. Let it be fully credited that Christianity has achieved very great, even most divine, results in the world. Still a great question remains. Christianity has had a long history. At its command have been placed unmeasured resources. In its life have inhered vast potentialities. Central to its creed has been the faith of an unfailing divine guidance and the ever-present inspiration of the Holy Spirit in its life. All this makes supreme the question whether Christianity should not already have achieved, and should not now be achieving, immeasurably more than seems to be reported in the life of the Church. I Take a most casual survey of the American republic. This, of all lands, would seem to present the most favor- able conditions for the unimpeded progress and triumph of Christianity. The virgin soil of America, especially in New England, was colonized by a God-fearing people a people who sought refuge from the tyrannies of the Old World that they might build here a nation founded on Christian morality and characterized by religious THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 25 freedom. In the long period of the nation's develop- ment, as State after State has been added to the national domain, distinct principles of Christian morality have found expression in the constitution of nearly every State. While the laws are framed to support the largest toleration and freedom of religious worship, yet far more than by implication our underlying national and State constitutions recognize this as a Christian govern- ment. The facts to be emphasized are that Christian forces originally preempted this territory, and the laws of the land are all so shaped as to foster and protect the worship and institutions of Christianity. The ministry of the American Churches, representing the highest character, learning, and influence, have justly held a foremost rank in the moral citizenship of the nation. On the whole, it may be said that no other single force in the nation has wielded a greater or more wholesome intellectual and moral influence upon the people at large than has emanated from the Christian ministry. The Church, through the agencies of its presses and schools, has had great opportunity to mold the moral life of the people. In any survey it is but fair that account should be taken of the immense immigration of alien peoples into American life. But, even so, the question comes back: "Why has not American Christianity shown itself vigor- ous enough to spiritually transform and assimilate these peoples?" Christianity is a missionary religion, and it would seem that there ought to be no place in the world where its power to attract and to evangelize alien races 26 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE should be so efficient as under its own civilization and in the midst of its own institutions. What are the general facts as to the status of the Christian Church in the American republic? By most expert authorities the conclusion is gravely reached that vast numbers in the population of the country are unchurched. 1 American Protestantism is divided into one hundred and sixty-four distinct denominations. This alone is a disgraceful chapter in our religious his- tory. It tells the story of dissension and cleavages founded on causes entirely unworthy of the essential spirit of Christianity. It suggests the picture of what ought to be a solid and efficient army divided into small and rival camps, many of them magnifying some petty shibboleth, each claiming a monopolistic defense of orthodoxy, and each in the meantime in an attitude inoperative toward the larger unity of life and pur- pose in which alone Christianity can move forward to the moral conquest of the world. This spectacle of a multiplied and petty denominationalism is nothing less than a reproach to American Protestantism. From the standpoint of business efficiency, it not only means inherent weakness, but is so alien to the spirit character- izing the great and united movements of the day as to excite a sense of contempt and disgust in the minds of clear and broad-thinking men. The whole thing is a most damaging advertisement for Christianity in both Christian and pagan lands. Another fact of ill-prophecy is, that while the rate of growth in church membership in the nineteenth century 'Josiah Strong, Social Progress, 1906, p. 253; also New Cyclopedia of Reform, p. 224. THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 27 was relatively greater than that of population as a whole, that process has been reversed in the recent years, the rate of increase of church membership falling behind that of the population. Hand in hand with the relative decrease of growth in church membership there has been a corresponding diminution of benevolent and mis- sionary contributions in the same period. II What about the Church and the city? The city by leaps and bounds is making itself the controlling power in modern civilization. Whatever may have been true in the past, it will remain true hereafter that the supreme problems of the race social, industrial, intellectual, and moral will find their chief field of discussion and the solution, if at all, in the city. In the city will be located the university, the endowed foundation for the pro- motion of scientific knowledge, eleemosynary institu- tions, the commanding journalism, the great publishing houses, and many kindred and potent agencies for giving direction and character to public life. Within the walls of the city civilization itself is to win its supreme vic- tories or to suffer its most tragic defeats. Christianity will be finally tested by its demonstrated ability or inability to meet and to overcome the moral obstacles of the city, and to establish there its seat of supremacy. It would seem significant that the apocalyptic prophecy locates the throne of the final and triumphant redemp- tion of the race in the midst of a great city a city with foundations resting upon a new earth, such a city in the beauty and purity of its life as might have literally 28 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE come down from God out of heaven. The apocalyptic city, within whose gates there could enter nothing which worketh abomination or maketh unclean, and whose very adornings are typified by the most precious and costly material things of earth, is the foreprophecy of the city which in perfection of life and beauty shall arise in the earth when the kingdom of Christ shall come to full realization. The perfect city is Christ's audacious prophecy for his kingdom. Its ideal is that it shall be the habitation of God's people, that righteous- ness shall sit in its seats of power, that integrity, virtue, and purity shall be the revealing features of its civic, social, and domestic life. What about the great cities of Christendom in this year of our Lord? The licensed saloons, more numer- ous by far than the churches, police graft honey-combing and debauching the legal protectorate of the city's safety, gambling made a lucrative trade, organized traffic in white slavery, the merchandise of social im- purity, so thriving that in every year thousands of the bodies and souls of women are murdered at its shrine and cast thence into the pit of oblivion as so much un- clean spawn of the city's refuse, murder stalking unarrested in the dark alleys these, and their unholy ilk, are the crying evils of the city, evils which baffle the vigilant search of law and which flagrantly assert themselves as against the most vigorous protests of decency and righteousness. The city is the capital seat of commerce. Its marts and exchanges are the channels through which flow the nation's trade and wealth. Here, as nowhere else, THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 29 fortunes are quickly made and lost. The grave fact to be emphasized is that vast volumes of the city's trade are conducted without reference to, or restraint from, Christian ethics. The tragic thing is that too often men who in their homes and in private life are unexceptional are willing to act upon unethical methods in the market. Here they proceed upon the vicious proverb that "business is business." Aside, however, from these evil features, only too general, what is the status of the Christian Church itself in the life of the great city? We are called upon for all reasons not to detract in the slightest from the good work which the Church is achieving in the city. The Church, however circumstances may be against her, is accomplishing a vital, an indispensable work a work without which the moral and spiritual life of the city would be impoverished beyond estimate. Yet, alas! measured by almost any visible standard, how impotent, de facto, seems the Christian Church to cope with, much less to control, the life of a great city. Numerically measured, the Church at best succeeds in getting but a small proportion of the population under the direct message of its ministry. It is estimated that in our large cities, averaging three hundred thousand and more, not more than seventeen per cent of the people regularly attend church. Dr. R. F. Horton is authority for the statement that in London not more than five per cent of the population regularly attend church. Of the laboring men in this country it is probable also that not more than five per cent are habitual church- goers. Brooklyn, New York city, is traditionally known 30 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE as the "City of Churches." In one of its best residential wards, under a most thorough recent house-to-house canvass made under the auspices of an organized federa- tion of churches, it is revealed that out of every one thousand families who classify themselves as Protestants, two hundred and eighty twenty-eight per cent have no church affiliations whatsoever. If these alleged facts, as cited, are typical of general conditions throughout the great cities of the land, then, it seems but conserv- ative to say that the Protestant Churches are failing disastrously in their hold upon those who ought to be the proper subjects for their ministry. Ill An old proverb says that "If man made the town, God made the country." Without knowledge to the contrary, it might readily be assumed that the rural districts would furnish fair and thriving fields for the churches. The relative importance of the rural church in the past would seem to be indicated by the testimony that fully seventy-five per cent of the business and religious leaders of the city were born and bred in the country. The vitality and ozone of the country have contributed to the city much of its best life. But the status of the country church proves distinctly disap- pointing to any hope based upon the theory of its natural advantage. A great and adverse change has come in recent years. The surveys of many representative and widely sundered sections furnish, with startling uni- formity, reports of declining attendance upon the rural church. THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 31 The causes of this decline have been well ascertained. These causes are various, and they are not all equally operative in the same sections. In general, the appli- ances of modern life have worked signal changes within recent years in the habits of the rural communities. In the earlier periods the "team-haul" distance repre- sented the measurement of the social and business boun- daries of the average rural community. Within these limits there were the country store, the post office, the gristmill, the blacksmith shop, and one or more rural churches. The distances to be traveled for barter or worship were such as could be covered by the ordinary drive with the farmer's team. Within these limits there was much life with mutual interests. The people knew each other, and such social life as existed was here developed. The young people made each other's acquaintances, formed their attachments, and started their new homes, usually within these given limits. The life of these communities was largely sufficient to itself. The people raised their own bread, spun their own flax and wool, and had little occasion or desire to know luxuries which might be imported from far climes. The world-vision of these people was narrow and comparatively obscure. The days of the railroad, of the daily press, of the telegraph, and the telephone were still far distant. The people, old and young, were inured to toil. Life with them was no playday. Their worship was in keeping with the community type. To those who were religious, religion was a cherished asset. Their faith was simple and rugged. The articles of their creed were not numerous, but they were clearly 32 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE defined, often somber and severe, and adhered to with dogmatic tenacity. Much of the most cherished life of these early communities was developed hand in hand with their worship in the primitive and simple rural church. This type of community the nation over has pretty much disappeared. If we were to seek for contrasts which the appliances of modern life have effected as between the present and the past, we could hardly ask for any more vivid than those presented between the modern and former rural communities. To-day the rural delivery, the daily paper and the magazine, the telephone, the trolley car, the electric vehicle, machine planters, mowers, reapers, and harvesters, the piano and sewing machine, not to speak of a hundred other things, are the common possessions of rural life. The doors of superior educational opportunities are wide open to all the children of the farm, and the tastes, requirements, and styles of urban life have traveled into many country homes. The change effected by all this in the scope of educational concepts, social ideals, and even in religious faith, it is impossible to measure. One thing is certain the old rural life, with its simple habits, its social, industrial, and religious ideals and methods, has gone, never to be reproduced. The present generation, let it be headed which way it will, can never by any possibility put itself back into the ideals and methods of its forefathers. On general principles, vast revisions from the beliefs and customs of former gen- erations were made inevitable in the transition from the older to the new life of to-day. In so general a THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 33 modernizing movement the questions of worship and of faith could not fail to be involved. The country church in general has not kept pace with modern progressive movements. In the single matter of church architecture, the rural church is generally and relatively far behind the city. Very many edifices throughout the country are old and dilapidated. They are not only unattractive in appearance, but they are practically uncomfortable for use. Many of them are single-roomed, or, at best, they have upstairs audi- toriums and downstairs basements. These churches are built on lines that reflect the austere and primitive habits of former days. They do not invite to social life, much less to the cheer and enthusiasm of a glad spiritual worship. Another blight on the rural churches is in the multiplication of denominations. In order to give a concrete illustration of this too general condition I cite literally a statement of experience of a Presbyterian minister, Dr. Charles B. Taylor, of McArthur, Ohio. He says: .In the field where I spent the last few years of my pastoral life, at the southern extremity of the field is the village of T , with about two hundred inhabitants. There are four churches in the place Method- ist, United Brethren, Presbyterian, and Christian. Two miles east is another Methodist church, and a mile and a half north is another United Brethren church. The entire population living within convenient distance of these six churches is about nine hundred. The aggregate member- ship of these churches is about two hundred and seventy, or about forty- five to each church. Four ministers labored among these churches, their fields extending elsewhere over wide circuits. The Methodist Episcopal minister supplied five churches. On one Sunday he preached three times and rode eighteen miles. On the next Sunday he preached twice and rode ten miles. He conducted five series of special revival services during the year, and did a large amount of pastoral work, visit- 34 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ing the sick and burying the dead. His salary was five hundred dollars a year and a parsonage. The United Brethren minister had seven churches under his care. He preached at each place once in three weeks. During the year he held seven series of special services. The churches were widely scattered. The preacher's salary was four hundred and seventy-five dollars. With that pitiful amount he supported his family, paid house-rent, and kept a horse. The brother who ministered to the Christian church had four churches under his care. His salary was about four hundred and eighty dollars. My field consisted of four little Presbyterian churches, extending along a line from north to south. On one Sunday I drove twenty-four miles and preached twice, and occasionally three times. On the next Sunday I drove eight miles and preached twice. The territory under my pastoral care was twenty-one miles long and eight miles wide. The visitation of the sick and the large number of funerals to which I was called added much to the burdens of the work. Like other brethren, I was expected to hold a series of special services at each church. I preached about two hundred sermons each year, and drove nearly two thousand miles over rough hills and, for the most part, red-clay roads. The winter trips were hard for a man of my age. My salary was eight hundred dollars. Four preachers ministered to twenty churches, and the work broke down strong men. The other three received salaries which were pitifully inadequate. Our congregations were small. The little churches lacked the enthusiasm which comes with numbers. And the pity of it was that we covered practically the same ground, and crossed and recrossed the tracks of each other every day. 1 The results of such a situation are more negative than good. Undue emphasis is laid upon denominational differences. Conscientious people are held aloof from effective cooperation in needed Christian work. Min- isters in such communities are meagerly supported, and hence, by an inevitable law, if they remain upon the ground, they lose both heart and effectiveness. Indeed, there is very little in such a community to in- spire either enthusiasm or hope in the average minister. A young man doomed to such a service will, as a rule, 1 Professor Garland A. Bricker, Solving the Country Church Problem, pp. 76-78. THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 35 come after a while to accept the limitations of his environ- ment. His personal support is insufficient. He can neither buy new books with which to feed and stimulate his mind, nor can he afford travel, by which he could refresh and enlarge his vision. The average young minister, whatever his native talent or his initial ad- vantages, will be sure in the end to succumb to a situa- tion which does not admit of expansion. A small, unresponsive and unprogressive community presents conditions which are deadly to professional ambition. A live man will either escape such a situation, or, if he is held to its environment, he is so robbed of the stimuli of growth, of the incentive to endeavor, that he soon acquires the habit and mood of confirmed mediocrity. If a community pursues the policy of paying starvation wages, then that community will receive its reward in the services of an anaemic ministry a ministry victimized by chronic starvation of its social, intellectual, and spiritual faculties. A largely underlying difficulty in the problem of the rural church is the lack of ready money in the average farming community. The farmer is proverbially frugal. There are reasons which make this inevitable. For the most part he handles very little money. In order to save at all he must be industrious, economical, careful at every point in his expenditures. It is the general testimony concerning good lands in Missouri that after having paid the legal rate of interest on his farm invest- ment, there remains to the farmer only about enough to pay his store bills. 1 Among six hundred and fifteen 1 Bricker. Solving the Country Church Problem, p. 36. 36 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE farmers located in the State of New York, near Cornell University, where the farmers are supposed to profit by the services of the Agricultural College, it was found on intensive investigation that these men averaged only about four hundred and twenty-three dollars each. 1 Iowa is supposed to be one of the best of the agricultural States. The editor of Wallace's Farmer is authority for the statement that the margin of profit in Iowa is the margin of child labor on the farm. 2 It is much easier to interest the Iowa farmer in the purchase of up-to-date farming implements than it is to interest him in the improvement of the schools or the public highways. This means that he has more money to spend in improving his farm industry than he has to spend upon social or neighborhood improvements. In the country at large there are many States whose farm- ing profits average lower rather than above those in the State of Iowa. It is easy to see how, under such general conditions, the country church is likely to re- ceive only a meager financial support. This condition alone very largely accounts both for the poor quality of country church edifices and the insufficient salaries paid to preachers. The ministry should not be, and as a matter of fact certainly is not, a mercenary profession. Young men do not enter this profession, as one might enter one of several other callings, with the hope that from services rendered a liberal, if not an affluent, income will be realized. All that can be looked for at best is a living 1 Bricker, Solving the Country Church Problem, p. 36. 3 Ibid., p. 37. THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 37 income which, frugally husbanded, may serve to keep the family in respectable comfort, and possibly to pro- vide suitable educational advantages for the children. It may be questioned whether the members of any other high-grade profession have acquired, as have the families of ministers, the art of making a small in- come go so far in the direction of maintaining respectable appearances and a comfortable living. The pastor in any parish, if conscientiously faithful in discharge of duty, feels called upon to render innumerable services, many of which make heavy drafts upon his nervous force and sympathies. He has many diverse characters and interests to deal with, and is often subject to crit- icism which is both thoughtless and heartless. A writer in the Bibliotheca Sacra puts the situation as follows: "As a simple matter of truth the minister is the hardest- worked wage-earner in the country. No first-class carpenter or plumber or mason or other skilled artisan has to surrender so many personal rights and submit to so many indignities, both with respect to himself and his family, as the average minister of to-day; and the wages of the skilled artisan are now higher to boot." It must be self-evident that no Christian minister can do his best work, under conditions of self-respect or of comfort for himself and family, who fails to receive a competent living support. But the ministerial pro- fession is by odds the poorest paid profession in the nation. The average minister's salary in the United States, outside of one hundred and fifty largest cities, is five hundred and seventy-three dollars. The Com- mission appointed by President Roosevelt to settle the 38 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE anthracite coal strike reported that the average earn- ings of certain classes of laborers in Pennsylvania were as follows: Stablemen $689 . 52 Pumpmen 685 . 72 Carpenters 603 . 90 Blacksmiths 557 . 43 1 In the investigations of the conditions of The Country Church, by Charles Otis Gill and Gifford Pinchot, these authors feel compelled to emphasize the lack of adequate ministerial support as one of the principal causes in the decline of the rural church. Comparing periods twenty years apart, while it is shown that ministerial salaries generally in the same territories have been nominally increased, yet, in view of the present higher costs of living, the salaries now paid have by a considerable margin less purchasing power than was true of the smaller salaries of the earlier period. On general principles, it ought to prove true that in the richer farming regions the rural church should receive the better support. And this in many sections is shown to be the fact. But in the larger and richer farming regions other conditions often intervene to disturb this natural tendency. In the better farming sections it often happens that the land is owned by an absentee landlord. The farm is cultivated by a tenant, who pays rent for his privileges. In such case the rule is that neither the absentee owner nor the tenant feels much responsibility for the church. In many cases the well-to-do farmer moves into town either Simm, What Must the Church Do To Be Saved? p. 194. THE CHURCH URBAN AND RURAL 39 for the purpose of leading a retired life for himself, or of giving his children better educational advantages. In such case the same thing happens as before. The man so placed, as a rule, does not lend much financial aid either to the rural church which he has left nor to the town church which he attends. A condition which has often worked depletion to the country church is in the fact that the children of farmers go from home for purposes of education. But the college-bred farmer's boy or girl rarely goes back to make a living on the old farm. It is from such stock that the city is constantly making heavy drafts for the reenforcement of its own most potent life. It is also said, and probably with much truth, that the average college and seminary-bred preacher fails largely to adapt himself to the country congregation. The education he has received, the newspapers, the magazines, and the books which he reads, all are far less imbued with a spirit of country than of urban life. He unconsciously fails to put himself en rapport with the moods and habits of rural thought, and thus fails to command an enthusiastic following from his parish- ioners. So controlling is this tendency that, in the judgment of many experts on the rural church problem, the candidate for the rural pulpit ought, as part of his ministerial equipment, to take a thorough course in an agricultural college. If these surveys of many representative and widely sundered sections furnish, and with startling uniformity, reports of declining attendance upon the rural church, we do not have to travel far to discover many reasons 40 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE for such declension. These reasons in themselves, how- ever, do not much help our faith. An honest facing of the real facts seems to force upon us the unwelcome conclusion that in city and country alike the Church is falling gravely short of realizing the larger ideals of its mission. THE CHURCH AND THE POOR Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. MATTHEW n. 4, 5. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. LUKE 4. 18. The number of property less wage-earners is on the increase; their material existence is growing more precarious, and the spirit of dissatis- faction and revolt is developing among them. MORRIS HILLQUIT. Only as all the wealth of possession and knowledge, of joy and virtue, is opened to hearts most remote from the worths of life, is there the fill- ing up of the great gulf, the uniting of a man with humanity. Only as these goods are poured out to those from whom no recompense can be expected, and we offer the feast of life to the poor, the lame, and the blind, do we actually unite ourselves with humanity. Anything short of this limits us to a class, a segment separate from mankind. Only in devoted ministry to "these least" are we one with humanity in all the sorrows and strivings and common values, whereby we accomplish the social, the universal achievement of the spiritual task. CHARLES HENRY DICKINSON. CHAPTER III THE CHURCH AND THE POOR A GREAT Christian ideal is that the gospel is for the poor. Christ was born and reared among the lowly. He was known as the friend of those who labor and are heavy-laden. His services for and among the poor were so brotherly, so sincere, so rich, so unceasing, that throughout his entire public life his very pathway was thronged by grateful masses. In his drama Mary Magdalene, Maeterlinck gives the name "Silenus" to a Roman nobleman who was the friend of Mary Magdalene, and in whose house she was often a guest. Next door to Silenus dwelt Simon the leper, a rich man whom Jesus had cured of leprosy. Jesus was a familiar guest in the home of Simon. It was on Simon's grounds that the poor fre- quently gathered to receive his ministry. Mary Mag- dalene, who was herself wealthy, had lost a precious treasure, which she thought had been stolen by some follower of Jesus. This drew from Silenus the reply which I here quote as illustrating Maeterlinck's con- ception of Christ's relation to the poor. Silenus says: "I am in fairly good position to know the band, seeing that for five or six days, it has been gathered near my house. I have even had the pleasure for everything turns to pleasure at my age I have even had the pleasure of attending one of their meet- 43 44 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ings. It was near the old road to Jericho. The leader was speaking in the midst of a crowd covered with dust and rags, among whom I observed a large number of rather repulsive cripples and sick. They seem extremely ignorant and exalted. They are poor and dirty, but I believe them to be harmless and incapable of stealing more than a cup of water or an ear of wheat." Again he says concerning these meetings on Simon's grounds: "It is a perpetual coming and going, a per- petual tumult. Their orchard is filled incessantly with a multitude of sick, of vagrants, of cripples, issuing from all the rocks in Judaea to beseech him, whom, with loud cries, they call the Saviour of the world, the Son of David and King of the Jews. There are some- times so many of them that they overflow into my garden." At its very origin Christianity surrounded itself with a kind of communistic atmosphere in which the poor were made to feel their full peership and kinship as citizens of the Kingdom. Historically, Christianity, in its most intense and awakening spiritual periods, has always voiced itself in resistless appeal to laboring and burdened life; in this life it has wrought its greatest transformations, from such it has recruited its largest numbers and most valuable working forces. Are the Protestant churches of to-day the churches of the poor? It should be emphasized that here and there through- out our great centers of population there are individual churches, well attended, and whose congregations are made up mostly of wage-earners and poor people. The worship is usually characterized by a zest and joy of service indicating a hearty spirituality. Such churches THE CHURCH AND THE POOR 45 illustrate the truth that the faith and spirit of the gospel as exemplified by the Master still make their welcome appeal to the multitudes. But it could hardly be claimed, I think, that such are the typical Protestant Churches of the present. The famous churches of our great cities are, for the most part, supported and attended by the privileged classes privileged in the sense of temporal prosperity. These churches pay high salaries, command the ablest pulpit talent, enjoy the most perfect rendering of sacred music from organ and choir. Their material accessories of worship are likely to be the most attractive which money and artistic skill may secure. But in the pews of such churches, well-nigh without exception, the really poor have only at best a minor representation. The truth is that the poor do not feel at home in these stately edifices dedicated to the worship of Him who was born in a manger, and who throughout his beneficent min- istry was a homeless wanderer, not having as much as a cot of his own on which at night to lay his wearied body. It should be said to the credit of many churches whose pews are thronged with wealthy worshipers that they give largely in support of missions in congested neigh- borhoods for the benefit of the poor. The motives of such giving are not to be impugned. The good achieved therefrom should be fully accredited. The workers in these missions are doubtless personally consecrated and useful. Yet there is a class quality in such ministra- tion which does not appear even to its beneficiaries quite of the kind which Christ was wont to give in his personal ministry, nor quite of the kind which he would 46 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE give were he physically present to-day among the poor. There are many who in a spirit of sheer self-respect decline to avail themselves of a gospel which is relegated to them through the hired agencies of the absent rich. It is the direct action of personality, of heart upon heart, that really tells in the winning of men. This was Christ's method. He gave himself. In the vision of Sir Launfal Christ is made to say: "The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, In whatso we share with another's need; Not what we give, but what we share, For the gift without the giver is bare; Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me." It is the purpose of this chapter more to state than to explain conditions. But a most casual view of our times make obvious some causes which tend to cleavage between the Church and the poor. To most of the poor, life is a struggle for the mere necessities of exist- ence. From a mere financial standpoint the Church is a luxury which many self-respecting poor feel that they cannot afford. They prefer to drop out of church associations rather than to rank themselves either as financial delinquents or charity subjects. This, moreover, is an age in which more than ever before, the poor are awakened to a sense of solidarity. They are, as a great class, beginning to feel the poten- tialities of their social and industrial strength. There is a wide feeling among them that capitalism, which has such a potent voice in shaping and directing the policies of the Church, and which so powerfully controls the business world, is neither self-denying nor just in THE CHURCH AND THE POOR 4 7 its relations to the poor. It is this feeling, widely abroad, about the selfishness and tyranny of capitalism which accounts for Socialism in politics, for the labor union in the industrial world, and for many other forms of organized protest against social and industrial injustice imposed upon the weak by the strong. The spirit and motive of an industrial democracy are wide abroad in the age. By subtle gravitation the interests of the poor are aligned with Socialism to-day a growing menace in civilization or with other industrial creeds or philosophies of social amelioration. The poor en masse were never so interested as now in the quest, to be enjoyed in this mundane life, of a garden of physical plenty, if not of luxury. There is a growing sense of the right of all God's children to a fair share of the common bounties of nature. This sense will never subside. Before its rising strength all facts of social or industrial injustice will be increasingly resisted. Unfortunately, be the inference true or false, there is a wide impression in the laboring world that the Church in its controlling mind is not practically sympathetic with the deeper needs of the poor, that it is not openly and bravely a defender of the rights of the poor as against the assumptions and encroach- ments of capitalistic interests. This view has been put injuriously deep into the minds of multitudes of the laboring masses. In the world of organized labor, now a large world, there is well-nigh universal distrust of, if not alienation toward, the Church. I cannot believe that the real spirit of Protestant Churches is such as to justify this antipathy of labor. But that 48 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE there exists a wide cleavage between the Church and labor no discerning man can deny. A few years ago President Plantz, of Lawrence College, in preparation of a highly useful book, addressed a letter to the secretary of every national organization of labor in the United States two hundred and thirty-eight letters in all. A question asked was this: "What do you think is the general attitude of the laboring class at the present time to the Church, one of cordiality, indifference, dissatisfaction, or hostility?" Ninety-three replies were received. Of these only six stated the attitude to be one of cordiality; eleven said indifference; three, hostility; and the balance, dissatisfaction. A second question was asked: "What, in your opinion f are the reasons for this attitude?" The replies, all interesting and many elaborate, clearly show that the indifference of working classes to the Church grows largely out of the position which the Church is assumed to hold on social and labor questions. It is not my purpose to defend the positions taken by these leaders of labor. The thing to be emphasized is the attitude, whether just or unjust, in which labor stands in relation to the Church. The men who framed these answers, answers which carry such unanimity of conclusion, are recognized leaders in the labor world. They are intelligent men. They know the very thought and feeling of the laboring masses. Their statements doubtless give a true reflection of the real situation. The grave feature of the case is that labor is out of har- mony with the Church. It holds itself aloof from the Church. It refuses to recognize the Church as either THE CHURCH AND THE POOR 49 its social, moral, or spiritual guide. To either party in the case the situation, justly looked upon, can only be regarded as fraught with disaster. The Church has no more legitimate, no more sacred, mission than to the laboring multitudes. If God's Fatherhood yearns over mankind, if Jesus Christ died for all men, then, the Church ought supremely to be the agent for winning the poor as well as the rich to the refuge of God's friendship. By all the sanctities of its divine mission it ought to prove itself the most perfect friend of the friendless, the most perfect helper of the helpless. A nurtured alienation of the poor as against the Church can in the interests of the Church itself be construed as no less than a calamity of the first mag- nitude. But this attitude can finally mean no less a calamity to the laborer himself. If he cuts himself away from the fellowships, the nurture, the inspiring ideals and hopes of the Christian Church, where else is he to go to find a compensating moral ministry? If he shall do this, toward what future does he face his own poster- ity? If he feels that his lot with all that the Church can do for him is limited and poor, then, what will be his own moral future, the future of his children, when by deliberate choice he shuts himself and his house- hold away from the doors of the Christian sanctuary? By his own choice he moves himself and his family out into the blank wastes of materialistic living. For the bread that he eats, and the raiment that he wears, he will still have to toil and struggle. The conditions of his earthly lot in divorcement from the Church will 50 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE certainly not be improved. Into his home will come trouble, sickness, and bereavement. Where, in his unchurched life, is he then to turn for consolation, to what agency is he to look for that ministry of heaven which in such experiences he will supremely need? And then, the future of his children does he dare to send them forth into the world destitute of Christian nurture? History lends its tragic testimony to the fatal perils of such a choice. No. The laboring men, the weary and heavy-laden, need few things more vitally than they need the ministries and fellowships of the Christian Church. The Church needs the laboring man. The laboring man needs the Church. Their interests and services ought to be merged in a mutual and indis- soluble union. It is a paramount pity that just in this age there should be anything like a marked cleavage between the Church and organized labor. The world of labor is a wide-awake world. The Church ought to surround and invade this world with the best ideals, the best inspirations, the best sympathies which can be born of a heaven-inspired gospel for humanity. The labor movement cannot be ignored. It is born of new ideals, from a new intelligence, and is pervaded and sustained by a great and growing sense of human rights. In the movement, as we have been forced to study it, there appears much that is crude and even brutal. In the camp of labor the spirit of the incendiary and the assassin has sometimes stirred the atmosphere of riot and of terror; out from this camp the hell-inspired dynamiter has sometimes stolen forth in the night upon the fell THE CHURCH AND THE POOR 51 mission of destroying property and life. But these are exotics of evil such as sometimes grow under the hedges and in the darkened corners of the human garden. They should not be accepted as standards for judging the labor movement. They are not the normal product of labor organizations. The great mass of labor is law-abiding, home-loving, and at its heart there is an irrepressible yearning for citizenship in the common- wealth of an enfranchised humanity. The labor movement throbs with the birth-throes of a new industrial civilization. It is a movement for- ward, not backward; Canaan, not Egypt, is its goal. It will be discreditable, a lasting reproach to the Church, if in this age she fails to realize her own great opportunity, under the standards of the gospel, to install herself as the leader and inspirer of the armies of labor. PART THIRD FACTORS OF LIMITATION 53 RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 55 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. . . . We ... do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and in- creasing in the knowledge of God. SAINT PAUL. "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfills himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." Science represents truth, sanity, disinterestedness, frankness, devo- tion, accurate observation, and correct thinking. It has fashioned an incomparable method without which we can do nothing aright. Re- ligion represents faith, aspiration, progress, poetry, discontent with the present, consecration, love of God and love of man, self-denial, self-sacrifice. One does not have to reflect long to perceive that these precious and holy things are both of God, or to see in how many ways one can help and serve the other. . . . What we want is not mere tolerance, not the grudging assent on the part of the one to the existence and ideals of the other, but the application of scientific method to the problem of religion and the ennobling of science by the religious spirit. DR. EL WOOD WORCESTER. CHAPTER IV RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS THE unceasing growth of knowledge and the steady expansion of thought are resistless revisionary forces. At first thought it might seem incongruous that en- lightened reason could ever be the agent of uncertainty and bewilderment to the Christian mind. But, as a matter of fact, reason has been the great intellectual and social disturber of the ages. Reason in order to secure for itself sure standing ground has always had to contend with atonic unreason. Rational progress has been secured only at the cost of overcoming obstacles enshrined in both custom and tradition. The evolutionist tells us that long before man was a reasonable being he was an emotional animal. For dateless ages he was far more governed by his appetites, his impulses, and emotions than by any law born of thought. As tribal relations developed there grew up certain usages which hardened into custom, the observ- ance of which, in the common interests of the tribe, was made obligatory upon all. The acts so consecrated were, by general consensus, adjudged to be for the com- mon good, and hence in effect were accorded the sacred- ness of law. Acts which, by the same general test, were counted injurious were put under taboo, were for- bidden. It was thus that the savage man first acquired his sense of right and wrong. He did right when his 57 5 8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE conduct conformed to the serviceable custom of his tribe. He did wrong when he committed the act tabooed, the injurious act. Thus the first ethical sense of prim- itive man sprang from the recognition of social neces- sities. Whether this theory is accepted or rejected matters little so far as real history is concerned. Nothing is historically clearer than that the knowledge of the most knowing has in large part been reached by slow processes, every step of which has encountered barriers erected by some ancient custom, prejudice, or superstition. Custom has been the despot of the ages. It is such to-day. Its power in society is well voiced in the fa- miliar saying that "One might as well be out of the world as out of the fashion." At this writing the "hobble skirt" is in vogue. As a fashion it is really so ultra that many sensible women have entered a league of revolt against its decrees. But nevertheless it parades itself in great numbers and show upon the avenues. It is a fashion which cannot plead for itself a moral, even if it may an economic, defense. But it is one to which multitudes of women have succumbed, a majority of whom, five years ago, would have been "inexpress- ibly shocked" to see any one of their sisters on the streets in a costume like that in which they themselves now unhesitatingly appear. Imitation is a factor of marked influence in collective social life, and it is on this principle that particular styles, even in clothes, which ought to be impossible, come to assert the tyranny of custom. But what is true in the minor matter of costumes is RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 59 far more bindingly true in the realms of creed and tra- dition. The tendency of the great masses of men, the tendency of all men indeed, is just to perpetuate in their own lives beliefs and customs as transmitted to them by their fathers. There has been handed down, well- nigh intact, from antiquities, nobody knows how great, whole volumes of folklore containing all mixtures of absurdities, superstitions, myths, fables mixtures that might have been brewed in the cauldrons of Macbeth's witches. And there are many among us who familiarly quote these things as talismanic of the weather, of crops, of weddings, or of anything that might happen in do- mestic or social life. Let it be granted that many who indulge in this kind of pastime have little or no faith in the validity of the things which they repeat. The significant thing is that the collective mind at any stage in its history could have invented and formulated so many mental nostrums, and the greater wonder is that these things should be perpetuated in the memory and thought-habit of succeeding generations. The evolution of superstitious thought has been much studied. It is well known that in prescientific ages the unexplained phenomena of nature contributed in- definitely to inspire the human mind with a sense of awe and mystery. These were ages in which ghosts and witches abounded, when Satan in Protean forms insidiously stole into the haunts of men. The human imagination was at once stimulated and depressed by the combined sensations of hope and fear, of faith and perplexity. There was a weird sense of spiritual phe- nomena, not all benign, pervasive of environment. Many 60 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE events were charged to supernatural causes. The more mysterious the event the more certain was it to be connected with some occult movement of Providence. Nature, to the primitive man, furnished ubiquitous provocation for the invention of superstitious beliefs. The Christian religion in itself, measured in its own terms, is infinitely removed from a religion of super- stition. But all through the centuries multitudes of its adherents have been largely imbued with super- stition. These shared the common notions of their times. They inevitably mingled their superstitions with their religious faith. And so it has easily and certainly resulted that the Church itself has been a channel through which many false views of both nature and Providence have come down to our times. Buckle, for instance, in his History of Civilization, directs many of his most caustic paragraphs against the Church of Scotland the Church in the land of David Hume and Sir Walter Scott as being a very nursery of superstitious beliefs. Nor should all this be to the modern mind either a source of wonder or of censure. Before the advent of science and the most fruitful science is hardly older than some men now living the phenomena of nature were interpreted by the imagination rather than by methods of ascertained law. The imagination made its appeal far more largely to mystery than to knowledge, and hence could not well be other than a fruitful mother of false notions and superstitious beliefs. Christianity, in its New Testament character, was, of course, never responsible for the burden of error thus carried in the popular mind. But Christianity could not escape the RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 61 evil mixture of false views which its subjects so uni- versally associated even with their religious beliefs. Now, when it is remembered that conservatism is not only one of the most permanent but one of the most controlling forces governing human thought and conduct, it cannot be a subject of wonder that reason in its con- flict for a rational interpretation of the world has en- countered vast obstacles from inherited and cherished errors and superstitions. Conservatism has ever been sovereign in the world of common thought. In the ecclesiastical world this rule has been so secure, has been so popularly approved, that he has always been the exceptional man whose voice was raised for a new departure. This man, if he is not too large of girth, or too persistent, may be borne with. He may be re- garded as a freak, or a harmless fanatic. But if he be a Wesley, he will be mobbed in the street; if he be a Luther, the princes and councilors of empire will sum- mon him to trial, and the Pope will issue a bull of excom- munication against him. We may not forget that the rulers of the Jewish Church hunted Christ to his cross because they regarded him as a dangerous heretic. If we survey the whole world of thought and action, if we review the entire history of progress, with this thought in view, we shall be more than ever impressed that only the exceptional man advances beyond the great routine. China, with its four hundred million population, until just now has stood for centuries a huge, unprogressive civilization. Why? Simply because from immemorial time every generation has repeated the thoughts, acts, and experiences of its predecessor. A 62 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE certain stereotyped habit of life has stamped itself into the very fiber and customs of the people. Against it has been trained the heaviest gunnery of Western ideals, and yet at this very hour the outer walls of Chinese conservatism are only slightly breached here and there. Yet among people who imagine themselves as in the van of modern progress there are whole colonies charac- terized by an unyielding and unmoving conservatism of much the same quality as that of the Chinese nation. How many of all we know are there who analyze great problems for themselves? How many are there who invent new implements of material progress? How many are there who make great scientific discoveries? How many are there who in the very vital realm of religious knowledge and experience are not moving in the same beaten pathways as their fathers before them? Or, how many are there who, if challenged, would be able to render clear and convincing reasons, for instance, for their views of the Bible, or for the entire assortment of convictions which they so religiously hold? Many millions of communicants are included in the membership of the great Greek and Roman Churches. But it is the definite policy of these organizations to discourage among the laity independent investigation of religious questions. The Church, or, rather, the priestly oligarchy, claims so authoritatively to have defined all articles of faith as to make it unnecessary for the lay mind to vex itself with such matters. The very name "Protestantism" implies dissent, cleavage, from the long heredity of usage and belief as maintained in the older Catholicism. But it is far from the universal habit RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 63 of Protestants to protest. The majorities accept their doctrines as they do their clothes, as ready-made articles. The overshadowing fact is that men viewed en masse are ancestral in their habits. We are what we are largely because of the homes in which we were born. Heredity has put its stamp upon us. Our deeper and controlling habits have been largely shaped by reactions from our early domestic and social environments. The philosophy of the most general beliefs is quite truthfully expressed in the lines wrought out by Henry Sidgwick in his sleep: We think so because all others think so; Or because or because after all, we do think so; Or because we were told so, and think we must think so; Or because we once thought so, and still think we think so; Or because, having thought so, we think we still think so. Now, all this, of course, is not to deny the sincerity nor to invalidate the Christian goodness of multitudes whose thinking, so far as it goes, is well-nigh purely traditional. But it all does emphasize the necessity, if there is to be real progress for mankind, of better mental processes. If there is to be a larger grasp on truth, if there is to be clearer intellectual apprehension of the world around us, if the life of men is to be en- riched by great accessions of new knowledge, then, it is necessary for somebody at least to do some original thinking. Traditional views are not to be condemned simply because they are traditional. There are two types of traditional thinking. The one covers all that class which has had a long tenure in human thought, but the assumptions of which do not prove truthful. Many old and cherished views have not been able to abide 64 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE the tests of scientific examination. Once, to the common belief, the world was simply a round flat disc, a spread- out plane. This belief is no longer possible. The Ptolemaic astronomy once commanded assent from the most learned minds. But after a false sway of four- teen centuries this system received its deathblow at the hands of a Bohemian monk, an original thinker, a patient investigator, who not only clearly demonstrated its fundamental falsities, but displaced the system by a new astronomy. False traditional views have placed many vicious interpretations upon the Bible. The science of literary and historical criticism has by no means been alone, or chiefly, responsible for enforced changes in biblical interpretation. It was once a belief universally and profoundly accepted in Christian thought that God literally in six days created the heavens and the earth with all that in them is. It was not the higher criticism, but geology, a first-hand study of nature's formative processes, that forced the abandonment of this view. It has been just as positively believed, on assumed biblical authority, that man has existed on the earth for only about six thousand years. Indubitable scientific discovery has also rendered this view untenable. Archaeology distinctly confirms the conclusion that elaborate civilizations existed upon the earth at a period far antedating six thousand years ago. A dogmatic misconstruction of the Bible has been responsible for much disgraceful controversy with, and many humiliating theological defeats from, scientific authorities. Science, in the very nature of its quest, RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 65 is often called upon to modify or to revise its working hypotheses, but it is always in pursuit of verified results, and when it reaches these it can suffer no defeats. The champions of unscientific dogma by their noisy attacks upon, and their sullen retreats from, the assured demon- strations of science, have furnished one of the most humiliating chapters in the history of theological thought. Happily, to the credit of modern intellect, and for the advancement of a sane faith, the Bible is now more and more receiving an interpretation which does not put it in conflict with scientific truth. A second type of traditional views is of the kind that expresses truth, after much truth, but not all the truth knowable of the subject involved has been ascertained. This type is fundamental. It furnishes conditions indis- pensable to progress in knowledge. At least it furnishes initial and essential stepping-stones in the direction of final truth. Perfected knowledge is the result of evolu- tionary processes. The perfected type of the Corliss engine is a marvel of ingenuity. But it is not the product of any one brain, nor of any one generation. It repre- sents not only the fundamental principle adopted by James Watt in his original patent of 1769, but the finest coordinated results of all revisions and improvements in construction which have been contributed through nearly a hundred and fifty years of inventive work. This history may illustrate how old facts are fundamental to the most perfect present-day knowledge. The prin- ciple has equal application to many traditional views which have come to us from a remote past. Nothing is to be said against traditional thought 66 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE in itself considered. It may be as expressive of truth as any matter of scientific verification, or it may con- tain features of truth which condition indispensably further knowledge on a given subject of inquiry. The difficulty with many traditional minds is that the truth which they hold is with them a thing of arrested develop- ment. They are content with a fragment, a rudiment, in place of the fully developed product. But this mental habit the habit, alas! of multitudes of good people in itself gives poor promise for the future. It is not the habit from which are begotten the pioneers of advanced movements in Church or in state. The mind that has dropped into a dogmatic and contented mood in the possession of things received only from the past is a mind with its vision closed to the future. It is as though the twentieth century, instead of looking forward for new intellectual and moral conquests, for new spiritual dominions, were called upon to be content with the standards, the ideals, and the partial knowledge of the eighteenth century. The crea- tion of Watt's engine was a great achievement. It immortalized the name of its inventor. This original invention embodied principles of construction which all subsequent builders have had to observe. But if the mechanical world had settled down to the conclusion that Watt's engine was the ne plus ultra of construction, then the wizardry of that creative machinery, steam and electric-sped, which in our day has multiplied the productive power of human industry a thousandfold, would be to us unknown. The fact that to-day the seas are navigated by palatial fleets, that the lightning express RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 67 leaps on its path of steel, and that the roar of mighty factories fills our cities, is all due to continuous inventive progress. Upon the original achievement there have been continuously superinduced new improvements, new adjustments, new combinations, new potentialities, until there has been evolved the majestic leviathan which to-day easily and without weariness does the work of a multitude of men. I take it that this history is but a parable of unlimited and undeveloped potentialities which inhere in all the social, intellectual, and moral life of the race. An imperative need is that all departments of thought and motive shall come under the direction of rational rule. From immemorial time the emotional side of human nature has been at the front. All the mysteries of life itself and of outlying nature have been appropriated by and interpreted through the emotions. This has given room, and especially in connection with man's religious instincts, for innumerable vagaries of interpreta- tion, for the rise of endless superstitions, for the ghost dances that have haunted the night, for magic, for bogies, and countless irrationalities which appeal to and overawe the credulous mind. The play of nature's mysteries upon the untrained emotions has always given the medicine man, the soothsayer, and the astrol- oger an awesome rank in primitive society. The older customs, philosophies, and creeds were largely infused with that speculative and uncertain quality which had its source in an emotional rather than a rational inter- pretation of the universe. The custom may have har- dened into law, the philosophy accepted as an authority, 68 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE the creed most positive in utterance, but they all alike asserted their sway over a prescientific habit of mind. Truth would require the admission that in no realm has the irrational wrought sadder mischief than in that of religious thought. Religion has so much to do with unseen phenomena, with a supernatural world, its divin- ities are so out of sight, and their movements and pur- poses so hidden in mystery, as always to make it easy for the credulous and imaginative mind to associate with religious thought all sorts of elusive notions. The great superstitions of the world have nearly all of them been domesticated in religious thought. This statement does not apply to Christianity at its original sources. Christ, let it be reverently said, was the sanest of all religious teachers. It might be said that he was strictly scientific in his methods. In his teaching, parables, and illus- trations he went direct to nature. He enforced his lessons by objects most familiar to the experience and observation of those whom he taught. But with the passage of time, the pure and simple faith of the gospel, like a river flowing down from its pure source, became much colored and corrupted by the superstitions and errors of the ages through which it passed. No truth, however perfect in itself, can be lifted higher than the highest ideals of its interpreters. The most perfect truth ever uttered will itself appear a distorted thing when handled only by men mentally and morally astig- matized. The truth is that Christianity cannot have its fairest opportunity, can never realize its rightful supremacy, until it makes its advent into a rationally ordered society. RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 69 The most perfect age of science, when it shall come, will prove the age of most triumphant faith. Aside from the supreme mission of the gospel, the most vital and hopeful prophecy of the present is contained in the steady and sure progress of scientific thought. Science, in a very saving sense, is rationalizing the age. Its reign will be a reign of sanity. Science stands voucher for nothing but truth. It insists in its every process upon verification. In its own spirit it is never dogmatic about its hypotheses. If it cannot test its question by one hypothesis, that hypothesis is abandoned and another resorted to until the result sought is found. Science rests in no theories, no professions. It rests in nothing save the verified result. In its character simply as an exorciser science is a supreme benefaction to mankind. It is gradually but surely banishing from the human imagination ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, bogies, evil shades, demons, which have for so long haunted and frightened the spirit of ordinary mortals. Science is a great clarifier of thought, a great revealer of knowledge. It refuses to allow myth to pass for anything but itself. It strips fable of every meaning except its own. It does not allow itself to be misled by tricks of speech or figures of rhetoric. It insists upon knowing the exact truth. It has the finest sense for detecting plagiarism and imposition. From the world of faith it is banishing superstitions and false traditions. Science makes no protest against the healthy artistic imagination, nor against its creations as seen on canvas or in statue. No more does it make protest against the legitimate life of faith and worship. But 70 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE it does strip faith of all false appendages. It insists that religion divested of error and superstition shall go forth upon its mission clad only in its own intrinsic perfections, radiant in its own beauty. Science is the great builder of modern civilization. It is the creator of the modern mercantile world. It has gridironed the continents with railroads, has peopled the seas with steamsped fleets, and has corraled the whole world into a close community of common intel- ligence and interests by lightning telegraphy. It has created the new industrial world, transferred the burden of industry from the strain of human muscle to machin- ery, thereby multiplying the products of consumption a thousandfold. It has created and systematized the agencies of intelligence for every department of human knowledge. The spade of the archaeologist has uncovered the remains of most ancient civilizations, and has so unearthed the data of their customs, laws, literatures, and religions as to enable the modern scholar to know more of their history than did their very contemporaries of the far-off ages. We may not know more specifically of Athens than did Pericles, but of the ancient world as a whole we have a vastly more perfect knowledge than was ever possible to him. Science makes us con- temporaneous with all ages. And what is true of the ancient world is immeasurably more true of our knowl- edge as applied to the civilizations of to-day. There is no nation so remote or obscure as not to be visualized to common knowledge. Much is known of the dwellers of uttermost islands, of the dwarfs in African wildernesses, and of the most isolated tribes in the northernmost RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 71 wilds of America. The great civilizations of the Orient are no longer remote from the nations of the West. The ends of the earth are bound together in the closest interests of mutual commerce. The great universities of America hold endowed chairs of the Asiatic languages and literatures. The philosophies and cults of the East, as set forth by native masters, are luminously translated into the Western languages. The field of universal religion is exhaustively studied. The science of comparative religion has yielded a vast wealth of information concerning God's dealings with mankind, has greatly revised many earlier notions of Christian people relating to the heathen world, and has done much to prepare the way of the Christian teacher for successful work among pagan peoples. The history, the philosophies, the ethnologies of all races are now accessible to the student. The scientific knowledge of nature is a modern achieve- ment. The telescope has carried the vision of the ob- server into the infinities and has annihilated the boun- daries of the physical universe. Microscopy reveals to our knowledge a cosmos peopled with infinite families of minute and marvelous life both unknown and un- dreamed of in the prescientific times. The processes of aeonic world-building have been traced, and are trans- lated by our cosmic and geological sciences. Repre- sentative fauna and flora of all strata and ages, so far as accessible, are on exhibition in our museums of natural history. The animal life of land and sea has been cap- tured, studied, classified. In these later days man himself, physiologically, 72 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE psychologically, in everything covering the entire range of his being, has become the subject of most intensive study. The natural development of childhood, the proper pedagogy of child-training, the processes of adult minds, normal and abnormal indeed, everything included in the range of man's mental history all is reduced to a rational philosophy. There is no longer left in human nature even a playground for the witches. Man in all his diversified life sees himself reflected as never before in the mirror of his own science. In times comparatively recent, much has been said and written with reference to an assumed antagonism between science and religion. This assumption, happily, is losing place in clear thought. Science proceeds on the basis of verified fact. Religion, it is assumed, is largely a matter of faith. But fundamentally, as be- tween the verified bases of science and the effective faith of religion, there is not the real difference which many have imagined. Even the verifications of religion are experimental. Religious faith tests itself by the acceptance of hypotheses. In Christian life the knowl- edge, the experience of the truth comes from the doing of the revealed duty. The experience of the saints keeps the Christian faith alive. Christ living, and constantly witnessing himself, in the hearts of his people, is the one superlative fact which makes Christianity a growing and irresistible power in the earth. Of course, aside from truth confirmed by experience, there are important doctrines of Christianity which appeal to faith in a way not admitting of present experimental verification. But such doctrines all stand in rational RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 73 harmony with the verified truths of faith, and so may be reasonably accepted. It is, however, true that the faith which we call Christian would itself perish had it no corroborations in the living experiences of believers. Science also shows its faith by its obedience. In order to possess itself of the truth it submits itself with all carefulness to the test of hypothesis. And, if one hypothesis fails, it perseveringly resorts to another and to another test until the truth sought is not only discovered, but demonstrated. And so it may be said, though obviously from different bases, that both reli- gion and science are subjects of faith, and both are exper- imental. The quest of science can be conducted only by the requisition of many qualities which in themselves are essential to the Christian life. "Science requires patience, diligence, accuracy, honesty, self-control, self- forgetfulness, willingness to take risks and to endure." 1 In service rendered science is proving itself more and more a beneficent ally of Christianity. If to bring to the world the kingdom of Christ is the mission of Chris- tianity a kingdom of brotherhood, of righteousness, of mutual service and helpfulness, of sanity, of truth and enlightenment among men then science may be justly rated as one of the most effective agencies of such a consummation. Among the distinctive services of science none are worthy of greater emphasis than the part it has played in promoting the spirit of mental honesty among men. Science, while insisting that no mystery is too sacred for its investigation, no obscurity too formidable for 1 Ame. The Psychology of Religious Experience, p. 412. 74 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE its undertaking, has absolutely no tolerance for any motive or method employed in conscious deviation from the truth. Doubtless many, known as scientists, have on occasion and in the name of science, appeared as special pleaders. But by so much they have been unscientific. The supreme quest of science is truth itself. But truth responds only to truthful processes. The general trend of scientific service is totally in the direction of the world's betterment. For the farmer it analyzes his soils, indicates their required fertilizers, and enables him to multiply their productiveness. To the stock-raiser it furnishes the eugenics for breeding the choicest types of horses and cattle. It floods the darkness of the city with electric lighting, sends pure water for domestic uses into every dwelling, and by methods conserving the general health discharges the city's sewage to the seas. As heretofore indicated, it has manifolded the productiveness of labor by the crea- tion of machinery. In the street car and the auto- mobile it has provided available and expeditious methods of local transportation for all classes. It gives promise of early solving the problem of aerial navigation. In- deed, in the entire realm of instrumental utilities there seems hardly a conceivable need which has not met with response from scientific skill. There is no department in which the beneficent and healing mission of science is more manifest than in that of surgery and medicine. It enables the surgeon to perform miracles of physical relief and cure. It has driven the scourge of yellow fever from cities like Havana and New Orleans, and has banished typhoid RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 75 from the armies. The Panama Canal belt, a region of natural pestilence and peril to life, it has transformed into one of the most sanitary of habitable zones. It has hunted the germs of contagious and fatal diseases, discovered their antitoxins, and confidently predicts the day as not far distant when these great infections may be no longer feared. Science, in all fields of its work, is serving human interests, widening knowledge, extending its sway over natural forces, and establishing for man in all relations a rational view of life. Its forces are active in all fields that attract human interest. In Africa, in the Orient, or wherever, on earth or sea, there are unique objects of study, there some intrepid scientist, with gun and camera, or whatever outfit required, is doing his work. Experts will continue to push their investigations into all fields and into every department until nature has surrendered her last revealable secret, and the knowledge thus gained will be more and more the common wealth and the common sanity of mankind. Scientific knowledge will be regulative of the future. Philosophy, enriched and aided by this knowledge, while broad enough to embrace all the practical phases of thought and life, will be rational and sane in its proc- esses and conclusions. Theology, no longer a system of cheerless logical architecture erected on a basis of arbitrary assumptions about God, but feeding itself vitally on the Divine Fatherhood as revealed in Jesus Christ, will come to such coordination with the best teachings of life and experience as to make most con- vincing appeal to enlightened reason. The Bible itself, 76 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE under the critical illumination of a constructive scientific spirit, can no longer be manipulated or monopolistically interpreted in the interests of any special theology or ecclesiasticism. A reverent scientific criticism will yield to the entire world all that is possible to be known from a literary, historical, or chronological standpoint about the Bible. Biblical literature will be redeemed in pop- ular thought from all traditions which have made of it a mere wonder-literature, a fetish to be worshiped, or which have loaded it with theories of inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility which it was never meant to carry, and which it has never claimed for itself. The world is moving into an ever-enlarging enlighten- ment. Before the increasing light, error and super- stition, all things akin to astrology, necromancy, sooth- saying, sorcery, and relic- worship, will pass to the limbo of a credulous and superseded age. It matters not how strongly intrenched in past usages, how seemingly impregnable the organism in which they dwell, systems and beliefs that are radically out of harmony with the world's growing enlightenment must finally disappear. From what has been said it might possibly be hastily concluded by some that man's religion is destined to be swallowed up in mere scientific thought. Infinitely untrue. Religiousness is the greatest fact of man's being. With Sabatier, it must be said, "He is incurably religious." The fact and importance of man's spiritual nature will ever loom more largely upon the world's thought. It would be a poor comment on God's great masterpiece man to assume that that which in him is most Godlike, his spirituality, should deteriorate in RATIONAL READJUSTMENTS 77 proportion as his mind is illumined with knowledge. Tennyson was not less a poet because he had a sane appreciation of the largest science of his time. The assumption that man's spiritual nature must shine less perfectly because his mind is enriched with rational knowledge would be preposterous. The more valuable our religion the more certain is it to be rational. God is not a juggler. He who is the Father of our spiritual nature is also the Creator of the mental and physical laws which are so fundamental to our very being. BIBLICAL CRITICISM 79 "Teach me the truth, Lord, though it put to flight My fairest dreams and fondest fancy's play; Teach me to know the darkness from the light, The night from day." At the present time it is no use trying to kill modern views of the Bible. If you are going to try to kill them, you must kill scholarship first. If you were to turn all of us out of our chairs in England, you could not find other men with adequate scholarship, holding different views of the Bible, to fill them. PROFESSOR JAMES HOPE MOULTON. As the critical view of Scripture comes to its own, it will be possible for the ripe fruits of reverent Bible study to be made accessible in a way which at present is not possible. For my own part I may say that criticism has never attracted me for its own sake. The all-important thing for the student of the Bible is to pierce to the core of its meaning. Now, since it has pleased God to give us his revelation in the form of a history, it is necessary for us to approach its interpretation by a historical path. But no history can be scientific, in accordance, that is, with the truth of things, unless it critically examines its documents and the material they enshrine. Thus criticism becomes for the interpreter of Scripture, not a task he may decline at his will, but an obvious duty that he dare not shirk. DR. ARTHUR S. PEAKE. The Scriptures either are or are not fit subjects for scholarship. If they are not, then all sacred scholarship has been, and is, a mistake, and they are a body of literature possessed of the inglorious distinction of being incapable of being understood. If they are, then the more scientific the scholarship the greater its use in the field of Scripture, and the more it is reverently exercised on a literature that can claim to be the preeminent sacred literature of the world the more will that literature be honored. PRINCIPAL A. M. FAIRBAIRN. 80 CHAPTER V BIBLICAL CRITICISM INTOLERANCE is a spirit so easily harbored as almost to make it seem native to the human mind. It shows itself in all realms of opinion, in social customs, in pol- itics, in religion, but nowhere more so than in religion. There are those both in and out of the Church for whom the exposition of any truth in collision with their fixed belief would prove entirely useless. The positiveness of such minds in asserting their own opinions is likely to be equaled only by their intolerance of the opinions of others. There are those, however, who fear that the present- day Church is largely shorn of spiritual power because of the work of "biblical criticism." This view, however invalid, may merit consideration on account of the sincerity of those whom it disturbs. That the science of historical and literary criticism, now of secure stand- ing, has in recent decades had large application in the examination of the Sacred Scriptures is too historic to need reaffirmation. That the continuous publicity, much of it sheer caricature, which pro and con has been given to biblical criticism, has resulted in dislodging some minds from their inherited views cannot be denied. The unsettling of inherited views has always followed in the wake of progressive thought. The intellectual world never pitches 81 82 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE its camp on new territory without leaving on its trail a certain contingent of mind whose mental repose has been painfully disturbed. When men are thrown out of their life-long ruts of thought by the dynamic of a new, or by a new application of an old, truth, there is no known law which will save them from a sensation of mental dislodgment. The inevitable unsettling of cherished and restful beliefs is a part of the price and the risk which the race has always had to assume in its intellectual and moral advances into new fields of truth. From this viewpoint the price of biblical crit- icism has been costly. It may not be unfitting that we should briefly trace some of the historic phases of the critical movement. And at the outset we must remind ourselves that the kind of criticism which has been applied to the Bible is precisely the same as that which has been applied to all important ancient, and even more modern, literature. The science of criticism was not created primarily with reference to the Sacred Scriptures. It is to be feared that they who at offhand condemn the application to the Bible of modern critical methods are themselves not well informed concerning the ante- cedent conditions in the case. It is to be remembered that for a thousand years prior to the Reformation the people had well-nigh no access to the Bible. An "in- fallible" Church arrogated to itself the sole interpreta- tion of this Book for mankind. Early in the Christian centuries, largely through the influence of the Ante- Nicene Fathers, the methods of biblical interpretation became mystical and allegorical to a degree that prac- BIBLICAL CRITICISM 83 tically shrouded from human view most of what now appears to us as the plain sense of the Scriptures. The theological teaching of the Church was not so much a reflection of Bible truth as it was of patristic homilies and of human interpretation, a great burden of which in the light of most reverent vision is now seen to be grotesquely absurd. The literature of the Bible was not studied grammatically nor in the light of its proper historic setting. The Bible, and with an inter- pretation adapted to the purpose, was principally used to bolster and to give sanction to the usages and teach- ings of the Church. Hedged in by an artificial and mystical interpretation which largely disguised and nullified their real message, a close prisoner in the keep- ing of an infallible Church, the Scriptures themselves had almost no opportunity to speak forth their own truth. Such messages as they purported to give were those of patristic allegory and mysticism rather than the plain utterances of Jesus Christ and his apostles. These ages, moreover, were characterized by a great dearth of learning. Science, in the modern sense of the term, was well-nigh unknown. History was a neg- ligible quantity. The great cities of the past had fallen into ruin. The wide continent, for the most part, was divided between the wilderness, the rival camps of feudalism, and lawless marauders. Even in the Church itself the man of real learning was the exception. Among bishops and priests alike there was almost universal ignorance of the original languages in which the Sacred Scriptures appeared. While there were other versions in whole or in part, yet for centuries the chief Bible in use, 84 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE even in the Church, was the Latin Vulgate itself a very defective version of the original Scriptures. The first complete Greek Testament given to the world was that prepared by Erasmus in the sixteenth century. Ignorance, dense and superstitious, cast its dark shadows far and near over the entire continent of Europe. The term "Dark Ages" may have been in some sense over- worked. But in contrast with the intellectual splendors of our own age, it would seem difficult to find a more fitting term by which to describe the intellectual con- ditions which prevailed in Europe for a millennium of years prior to the Reformation. Of the Church throughout these desolate ages it should be said that, however egregious and false many of its claims, however despotic its rule, however great the abuses to which it loaned its sanction, however impure was much of its guiding life, however perversive its interpretation of the plain gospel of Jesus Christ- yet, on the whole, the rule of this Church over the peoples of Europe through all these dark and turbulent centuries must be stamped as beneficent. Without the reign of the Church it is impossible to surmise what would have become of the world itself. The Church was immeas- urably far from ideally representing the spirit and mis- sion of its Master. But it was the one and only power whose authority was universally heeded in these ages, and as no other power it did represent the authority of heaven, it thrust the sanction of eternal things upon the popular view, and as another Moses coming straight from the flames and thunderings of Sinai, it held over these rough ages restraints and regulations which BIBLICAL CRITICISM 85 seemed to utter themselves as from the very lips of God. The Church, for these Middle Ages, may not unfittingly be likened to a big uniformed policeman of Providence. It wore the badges of highest sanction, it embodied in itself the highest authority known to the human imagination. It carried at its girdle the weapons of most fearful retribution against the dis- obedient, and it gave highest pledges of eternal safety and reward to all obedient citizens. This policeman himself was far from ideal. He was despotic, arrogant, overbearing, oftentimes savagely misusing his authority, often grossly unjust, often under guise of sanctity com- mitting nameless outrage against heaven. Yet, on the whole, we look back upon him as the one historic figure without whose guiding hand the civilizations of the Middle Ages could never have been piloted over into the rich heritage of our modern world. Such, in general, was the condition of Christendom until the breaking forth of the Reformation in the six- teenth century. The Reformation was a widely con- tagious and powerful protest against the assumptions, the despotisms, and the corruptions of a Church which for centuries had asserted a heaven-ordained and in- fallible authority over the mind and conscience of Europe. Whatever else may be said about the Reformation, it is safe to say that it was the rock against which were fatally shattered the claims of an infallible papacy. But the Reformation, however great as a movement, was very far from working the intellectual emancipation of the age. Even the reformers themselves remained 86 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE under mental bondage to many inherited ideas, ideas which it would require a more enlightened age to illu- minate, to revise, or displace. Indeed, while the reform- ers stoutly challenged the authority of the Church in its use and interpretation of the Scriptures, it did not at all enter into their purpose to institute a critical examination of either the historic or literary character of the Bible. It was not accepted as even a part of their mission to question acutely the great body of tra- ditional lore which underlay the accepted views of the sacred books in their day. However vastly important its mission, it was still not the mission of the Reformation to call into being a school competent for the task and eager for the work of giving an adequate critical study to the historical and literary character of the Bible. Even the age of the Reformation, luminous as it was. was not ripe for such a movement. Not until in the latter part of the eighteenth century were the conditions ripe for a real science of historical and literary criticism. It was at this period that the human reason came fearlessly and invincibly to assert its own inherent and independent right to investigate and to know for itself. This was the period when the treasured fund of age-long traditions went into bank- ruptcy. A significant feature of this new intellectual era was that its leaders were laymen. This era may be characterized as one largely skeptical, at least one of profound and fearless mental inquiry. In its atmosphere no dogma was revered simply because it was enshrined in hoary traditions, no ecclesiastical interpretations were accepted as true simply on the BIBLICAL CRITICISM 87 long-standing sanction of priest or council. About the only infallibility recognized was that which inhered in the human intellect itself. A passion of investigation was begotten which could be satisfied with nothing short of knowing the truth and the whole truth about every subject interrogated. In this new atmosphere all ancient records and lit- eratures were subjected to most critical reexamination. Their historic and literary relations to the countries and times in which they originated, the truth or falsity of their narratives, the integrity or corruption of the texts in which they have come down to us all these features were made the subject of most fearless, patient, and exhaustive study. Indeed, this was the birth-period of what is now the well-established science of historical and literary criticism. Now, as a most obvious fact, the Scriptures could not escape the application of this new critical inquisition. Their very prominence as the most sacred literature of the world would inevitably subject them to this process. The fact that the men applying the new methods might have been skeptical and unbelieving as to the sacred character of the Scriptures themselves could really make no difference with the final outcome of the case. In so far as the Bible was a body of literature, and by so much a human product, the new student felt at perfect liberty to apply his critical investigations. If the Bible is really a divine record, then no amount of critical investigation can finally do it harm. If its character is attacked and misrepresented by a false skepticism, then it simply remains the duty of the Christian defender 88 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE to expose the falsity of the attack, and to restate the grounds for belief in the divinity of the records. And this was the process necessitated. It is puerile to cry out against the higher criticism as such. The scientific criticism of the Bible was as inevitable as the movements of Providence. The Church would be most recreant to duty not to engage in this work. If the Scriptures should be unjustly dealt with because of the skeptical and hostile spirit of some of the promoters of the new critical movement, this would only impose upon the Christian scholar a new obliga- tion to expose and to refute the attacks. That Christian scholarship should become an active, and in the long run the leading, participant in the work of biblical scientific criticism was from the very induction of the movement itself both a supreme duty and a superlative opportunity. Biblical criticism developed along two principal lines. First, a most exhaustive scrutiny was given to the char- acter of the texts through which the Scriptures have been transmitted. The new critics turned their atten- tion naturally to a dogma which had been accepted alike by the mediaeval and the Reformation Churches, namely, the infallibility, the inerrant inspiration, of the Scriptures themselves. A critical examination and com- parison of the various texts promptly revealed the fact of many variants in these texts, and consequently gave room to challenge the long-cherished dogma of the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. Since the beginning of modern biblical criticism there have come to light many hitherto concealed manuscripts, especially BIBLICAL CRITICISM 89 of the New Testament, all of which have contributed to a larger interest in textual study. When the great work of Westcott and Hort in producing their Greek Testament was undertaken, it was then conceded that the textual variations between manuscripts at their disposal numbered not less than one hundred and fifty thousand. Surely, a very great number! yet all testify- ing to the supreme importance which the Church has attached to the preservation of the New Testament Scriptures, and furnishing at the same time the best possible conditions for the critical ascertainment of the correct originals. It may be said in passing that large ground of assurance is furnished in the fact that "no Christian teaching or duty rests on these portions of the text which are affected by differences in the man- uscripts, still less is anything essential in Christianity touched by the various readings." 1 We may also grate- fully add that as the outcome of the most incessant and exhaustive studies of all the various texts, the Church is doubtless in possession to-day of the most exact repro- duction of original texts possible of present attainment. It must be admitted, however, that the multitude of text variations makes good the challenge of the critics against the always extrabiblical dogma of a plenary verbal inspiration. The second general direction of scientific biblical study was that which deals with the historical and literary character of the books themselves. The same critical principles were applied to the books of the Bible as to other literature, and, it must be said, with results 1 Btra Abbot. go CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE quite revolutionary, if not destructive of many tradi- tional beliefs. The history of this process, which has now gone on for a hundred and fifty years, with its controversial aspects, its advances and retreats, its incalculable labors, the unmeasured light which has been thrown upon both the history and literature of the Bible, the beneficent reconstructions wrought, the rational appeals which its results as thus far reached make upon the thoughtful and open mind all this presents a field of exceeding intellectual and moral interest, which here must be passed by. An age had finally come whose scholarship was ripe for treating the books of the Bible purely on the grounds of their grammatical, literary, and historical values. The allegorical methods of interpretation, which for sixteen centuries had mystified the minds of its readers and had obscured the real meanings of the Bible, were now to be swept away. Traditions and doctrines which were not founded upon Scripture facts, but which were based upon the dogmas of a papal priesthood, were to be dethroned. The Bible, its monkish garments laid aside, was to be brought forth from the cloister, and under heaven's own sunlight, and in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom, was to speak forth its own clear, unobscured story to the children of men. This, if there ever was such, would seem to have been a providentially guided movement. If the Bible is a record of God's dealings with, and purposes toward, mankind, then, it was preeminently due to this book itself the most important possible of all books that it should have unobstructed opportunity to voice itself. BIBLICAL CRITICISM 91 If the Bible is intended to speak God's thought to the human soul, as a man might speak to his fellow, then it was due that all that is human in the book the visions, the inspirations, the hopes, the fears, the soul-experiences, that live themselves in the human writers of this book should speak at first-hand from its pages. All that the Bible needs, all that it ever did need, is a clear and unclouded opportunity to declare its own history and to deliver its own message to the children of men. And this opportunity, far more perfectly than ever before, has been afforded by the historico-critical movement. It is absurd to make a bogie of "higher criticism." Higher criticism in legitimate application is an honest attempt to give its subjects absolutely fair treatment. It has been well defined as "an effort of the mind to see things as they are, to appraise literature at its true worth, to judge the records of men's thoughts and deeds impartially without obtrusion of personal likes or dislikes." It is this process, long and patiently applied to both the Old and New Testament literatures, which has yielded to the Church and the world the priceless products of modern, scientific biblical study. The Bible in all its history was never so much studied, its yield of inspiration was never so rich, its divine char- acter never so luminous and unclouded, as seen in the brief period since the birth of the higher criticism. For the entire invaluable process of emancipating the Bible from the fables of tradition, from unscientific dogma, from mystical and meaningless allegory, and from the domination of priestly authority, we are more indebted to the German than to any other single nation. 92 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE The German mind is plodding and thorough to the last degree. It does not know the mood of surrendering a subject until the last question which may inhere in the subject itself has been answered. A review of critics from Semler to Wellhausen puts before us an illustrious procession of the very giants in German scholarship. The measure of unremitting toil, of exhaustive investiga- tion, which this army of scholars has given to biblical problems, is something vast, well-nigh beyond imagina- tion. It is safe to say that no subject of scientific interest to mankind has received more competent atten- tion, more searching investigation, or more patient study than that which has been given to biblical problems by German scholarship. It is due to say that for unbiased study of biblical questions, for their exam- ination in the pure white light of rational thought, the German University has afforded exceptional opportunity to its scholars. Under state management, this uni- versity has been the one center inviting free investigation of all subjects of thought with immunity from priestly censorship and from the fear of ecclesiastical ostracism. It must be sadly admitted that the German mind has suffered greater reactions from the critical process than that of any other people. This general result, so far as the German people were concerned, was natural and inevitable. In the realm of biblical criticism German scholarship was a pioneer. This criticism, pro and con, broke upon German thought with startling novelty. In its earlier movement it was brilliantly led by skeptical and destructive minds, such as Strauss and Bauer. Its findings traveled rapidly from the seats of learning BIBLICAL CRITICISM 9$ to the thought of the common people. It could not be otherwise than greatly disturbing to the common faith. To reach matured and measured results such as are now quite generally accepted by competent and constructive Christian scholarship was a consummation requiring time. It is also to be remembered that for the evils wrought a constructive Christian scholarship was not responsible, while at the same time it is the mission of such scholarship to correct these evils. Never- theless, it will remain true that the work of Germany will ever command a growing appreciation in the world of biblical scholarship. It would be an incomplete view which would confine the researches or conclusions of biblical criticism to Germany. On the Continent the scholars of Italy, France, and Holland have made brilliant contributions to this science. In England and Scotland the names of Robertson Smith and S. R. Driver, not to mention scores of others, stand in enviable fame as workers in this field. If one really desires to know what con- tribution American scholarship has made to this world subject, let him read the names alone of the contributors to two monumental products of modern Christian thought, namely, The International Theological Library and that greatest commentary of the Bible in English, The Inter- national Critical Commentary. The fact to be emphasized is that wherever in the world to-day there is a commanding scholarship, there is also acceptance of the broader results of higher crit- icism. As the great Professor Sanday, of Oxford, says, "Its conclusions are international and interconfessional." 94 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE It would be quite gratuitous, as well as false, to assume that the history of the critical process, first and last, has not been characterized by a wide diversity of both opinion and motive. Indeed, it may be said that the movement in its earlier stages was largely negative, if not destructive, in its aim. Men of all beliefs and nonbeliefs espoused its work. Men who were foes to an inspired faith naturally took advantage of all evidence which they could turn against a traditional orthodoxy, or by which they thought they might undermine the proofs of the Scripture as the record of a divine revela- tion. To admit this is only to concede a feature which has been true in the history of all intellectual con- troversies. There has been no scientific discovery which some have not sought to wrest against accepted theories of truth. This, upon the one hand. On the other hand, nothing in the history of thought is more obvious than that traditional theories and dogmas have been in innumerable cases forced to give place to new views of truth as resulting from new studies. The fact, however, that merits all emphasis to-day is, that biblical criticism, which has now reached the status of a science, is no longer, if ever, in control of negative or destructive minds. The vast work of biblical criticism as now conducted is in the hands of the most able, expert, and constructive scholars of the entire Christian Church. Another fact, freely to be admitted, is that the mission of biblical criticism is as yet far from complete. There are a multitude of minor questions still in solution, questions on which the most expert either hold them- BIBLICAL CRITICISM 95 selves in suspense, or on which they have not as yet reached grounds of agreement. The silence or the dis- agreement of critics on many questions can furnish no just ground for surprise. The data for the critical settlement of many questions are still undiscovered, or, at best, most obscure. It is wonderful, however, and occasion for devout gratitude, with what success modern scientific research is uncovering the evidence which more and more must decide the at present un- settled questions of biblical criticism. Having said so much, I now call attention to the larger other side of this question, a side which merits all prominence. It would be a great mistake for any to assume that the fundamental principles and the larger territory of biblical criticism are not already secure. For a hundred and fifty years, and especially and pre- eminently for the latter part of this period, this task has engaged the ablest scholarship of the Church. No field in the entire history of human thought has been more expertly or exhaustively examined than this. The result is that there have been reached wide agree- ments as to fundamental principles, and the larger territories within which all the lesser questions must be explored and settled have been clearly outlined. The supreme battle of Christian biblical criticism has already been fought and decisively won. It is only those who have neglected to avail themselves of the abundant sources of information who will have the hardihood to deny the facts. A statement of detailed results secured would prove too voluminous for our present treatment. In the 96 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE field of the Old Testament, I know of no more concise or complete summary of these results than that pre- sented by Dr. James Strachan, a richly furnished biblical writer of Edinburgh. In the New Cyclopedia of Re- ligion and Ethics, he says of Old Testament criticism: It has reconstructed the history of Israel in the light of that other modern principle "There is no history but critical history." For the incredible dogmas of verbal inspiration and the equal divinity of all parts of Scripture it has substituted a credible conception of the Bible as the sublime record of the divine education of the human race. It has traced the development of the religious conceptions and institutions of Israel in a rational order. Moving the Old Testament's center of gravity from the Law to the Prophets, it has proved that the history of Israel is fun- damentally and essentially the history of prophecy. It has made a sharp and clear distinction between historical and imaginative writing in the Old Testament, and so enhanced the real value of both. It has appreciated the simple idylls of Israel's folklore, pervaded and purified as they are by the spirit of the earlier prophets, and used by them to transfuse the devotion of a higher faith into the veins of the people. It has thrown light as Astruc saw that it would on the many duplicate, and even contradictory, accounts of the same events that are found in close juxtaposition. It has explained the moral and theological crudities of the Bible as the early phases of a gradual religious evolution. It has denuded the desert pilgrimage of literary glory only in order to enrich the exile. For the "Psalms of David" it has substituted the "Hymn book of the Second Temple," into which are garnered the fruits of the religious thought and feeling of centuries. To the legendary wisdom of one crowned head it has preferred the popular philosophy of many generations. For a religious history which looked like an inverted pyra- mid, it has given us one which is comparable to an ever-broadening stream the record of a winding but unwavering progress in the moral and religious consciousness of a people. Instead of crowding the most com- plex institutions and ideals into the infancy of the nation, it has followed the order of nature "first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." In the field of the New Testament the critical process has come as near as present conditions of human knowl- edge will permit to the settlement of the synoptic prob- lem; has thrown a flood of light upon the writings of BIBLICAL CRITICISM 97 Saint Paid and upon his life and times; has established the probability as nearly as all accessible evidence may affirm that all the present writings of the New Testament were produced within the first century. The secured canonicity of some of the lesser epistles, such as Jude, Second Peter, Second and Third John, are still open questions, as they were when the New Testament canon itself was formed. Upon questions of the authorship and the dates of the Johannine writings more micro- scopic scrutiny has been concentrated in the last twenty- five years than through all the preceding Christian centuries. Professor Sanday, a foremost authority on the fourth Gospel, says that it is without doubt the latest of the Gospels and is written with a knowledge of the other three. In his view, "It is a retrospect by a writer of commanding position and authority, presupposing what has been already done, but adding to it from the stores of his own experience and reflection." It is with him an open question whether its author is to be identified with John, the son of Zebedee, though he leans to the probability that he was the same. In any case, he has no doubt that the author of the fourth Gospel had been a personal disciple and follower of our Lord, though a youthful one. It must be conceded, I think, that concerning the fourth Gospel, the Apocalypse and the First Epistle of John, some unanswered questions still remain. Well, finally, it may be asked: What is the value of it all? If to have the most luminous and accurate knowledge possible of the historic foundations of our 98 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE faith; if to have a Bible purged of priestly fables, of mystifying allegorical interpretations, of false traditions and of unscientific constructions; if so to clear the entire field of traditional false conception as to permit the Scriptures to speak directly to us from the background of their own grammatical and historical settings; if to have accessible to every Bible reader the most correct texts which human study can give, and the most perfect historical environment possible of reproduction; if to hear and to know the words of Christ, if to see his his- toric image, more perfectly than has ever been permitted to any generation of his followers; if to walk in vivid historical companionship with his apostles; if to have at our command a more rational and defensible view of the Bible as an inspired record of God's dealing with, of his purposes toward, mankind if there be high value in all these things, then, the biblical critical movement will take its permanent place in history as one of the most significant and beneficent in the providential scheme of the world. SECULARIZED EDUCATION Most nations make some provision for religious instruction in their state systems; but in the United States, where there is most complete separation of church and state, there is practically no official provision in the grammar and high schools and in the State universities for religious instruction or for the inculcation of the religious spirit. DR. THOMAS NICHOLSON. There can be no true and complete education without religion; to provide adequate religious instruction for their children is the duty of the churches, a primal and imperative duty. The hour at Sunday school, the religious exercises of the public school and the ethical instruction of the public school, through the personal influence of the great body of religious public school teachers, do not meet the requirements of adequate religious instruction. To provide religious instruction for their chil- dren is not only the duty of churches, it is their inherited and inherent right, and this right should be recognized by the State in its arrange- ment of the course of school studies. THE FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN AMERICA. It is tremendously important that school administrations come quickly to some understanding about what they are going to do with the spiritual apprehensions of childhood. The unspoiled mind of the child has for its first right all-roundedness of training. To rob it of that right know- ingly is a species of highwayry. . . . Ten to eighteen years of school drill, and ten to eighteen years of silence about a cosmic instinct puts the youth- ful mind in a state of indifference to religious issues. It considers them academic or purely questions of preference and sentiment. The first result of such a policy is to take from the Church its rightful power of approach to the school- trained mind; but the full pathos of the situation is in the fact that when the educated thought of this country has come to the conclusion that the religious life is of no value to itself it has come to madness! DR. WILLIAM R. HALSTEAD. 100 CHAPTER VI SECULARIZED EDUCATION FOREMOST among the forces which tend to turn American life away from a reverent spirituality is the secular spirit which so largely prevails in our educational systems. The well-nigh universal secularization of edu- cation has proven a destructive foe to spirituality. As compared with this influence, the higher criticism, even though it had to be adjudged as evil, is but an infant in its cradle. America, and in one of the most phenomenal eras in history, has tried on a national scale the policy of a "free church in a free state." Here religion receives no State endowments. All that the State undertakes is simply to protect religion in its rights of worship. The Church must absolutely depend upon itself for its own life, its own support. In our public school system many diverse influences have been operative insistently and increasingly demanding that the educational work of the schools shall be conducted without Bible study, without worship, and with the entire elimination of distinctively Christian teaching. I do not arraign the public schools on their secular side. Their teachers, for the most part, are persons of character, of intelligence, of ability. The standards of scholarship are creditable, and with a tendency to increasing strenuency of demand. The intellectual prod- 101 io2 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE uct of the schools as a whole is well reflected in the rank and file of American citizenship. These schools encourage mental thoroughness, energy and honesty of purpose, and they have contributed beyond measure to the in- telligence and manliness of our national life. But toward the creation and promotion of spiritual ideals, toward the distinctive education of the religious nature, it cannot be claimed that they have made a corresponding contribution. Is not failure, however, in these very respects one of the most disastrous that could be charged against any educational system? A recent writer 1 most pertinently says that a true civilization must realize and build upon certain primary elements of human nature, and with the understanding that these elements are mutually religious and inseparable. He names the sexual instinct, upon which is built the institution of the family; man's natural thirst for knowl- edge, which brings about educational institutions; the social instinct, which expresses itself in civil society; and finally the instinct of worship, which in its institu- tions designs a provision for the responses in the human spirit to the nature of the universe and to God. These four things in proper correlation will be found under analysis to cover the requirements of an ideal civilization. But, this being so, what is to be thought of a civilization whose educational system builds with- out reference to the spiritual and worshipful nature of a nation's youth? The Roman Catholic Church is guided by a true instinct when it insists upon educating its own youth in the parochial schools. Her authorities > W. R. Halstead, A Cosmic Review of Religion. SECULARIZED EDUCATION 103 know that the enlightened secular spirit of our public schools is fatal to the claims of the Catholic Church. But with Protestantism, and with civilization as a whole, the question is far larger and other than that of simply holding young life to the forms and doctrines of a particular historic Church. It is a question of the neglect or the culture of the most vital and sacred poten- tiality in human nature in the last resort, the relation of human life to God. Give the child over for the twelve or fifteen years of its educational life to mere secular ideals and methods, with only at best the most incidental teaching and training for its spiritual nature, and you have a character whose spiritual faculties are submerged. But this is the very thing we have been doing for a series of generations. The result has brought spiritual atrophy into many homes. Home religion is decadent. The family altar has gone out of fashion. Parents, victims of their own secular education, are not alive to the su- preme importance of spiritual training for their children. Of course there is a large contingent of American homes in which this secularizing process has not prevailed. But in so far as it has prevailed it utters everywhere a menace not only against its individual subjects but against our very civilization itself. A^ godless civiliza- tion Cannot endure. It is a perversion in the earth, a reversion from the trends of moral evolution. The American public, secular school system viewed in itself is something majestic. It will be formative and decisive of most momentous destinies in our civiliza- tion. But in its monopoly of educational methods, a monopoly which neglects a recognition of the spiritual io 4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE nature of childhood, it is an enormous departure from the historic methods of the Christian centuries. It is to be accepted without saying that organized public education, both in extent and quality, is a vastly different thing in the twentieth century from that which was either conceived or possible in most of the preceding centuries. The unmeasured growth in just the recent past of a scientific knowledge of the universe has in- calculably enriched the scope of educational studies. Both in the measure of topics to be taught and in im- proved pedagogical methods the modern education has immense advantage over its predecessor. But in the single and most vital matter of religious education no other system has been characterized by such neglect as that of our own American public school system. The value which Christianity has always set upon the spiritual training of childhood is rooted in the very incidents of New Testament history. Christ took little children up in his arms and blessed them, making them the very types of his kingdom, and declaring that of such is the kingdom of heaven. Timothy is the most beautiful character of all Paul's associates, the one doubtless to whom he was personally most attached. Paul loved him as his own son in the gospel. The Chris- tian value of Timothy is largely accounted for in the fact that from his infancy, both by his mother and his grandmother, he was trained in a knowledge of the Scriptures. In patristic history we trace the moral greatness of many of the great Fathers, such as Basil, Gregory of Nazianzen, Chrysostom and Augustine, to careful spiritual SECULARIZED EDUCATION 105 training in their childhood by Christian mothers. It was of Arethusa, mother of Chrysostom, that Libanius, the foremost literary man of the heathen world in his day, said, "Ah, gods of Greece, what wonderful women there are among the Christians!" Augustine, up to his day the mightiest intellectual successor of Saint Paul in the Christian Church, though he had entered far upon a career of error and libertinism, was never able to escape the teaching and example of his godly mother, Monica. During the Middle Ages, such education as existed was conducted under the auspices of the Church, and one of the central features of that education was the catechetical religious training of children. After the Reformation, wherever the influence of Luther and his coadjutors prevailed, there was established a sys- tematic religious education of childhood. "In 1520 Luther demanded that the chief subject taught in the schools should be the Holy Scriptures. ... In the country districts around Wurtemburg it was prescribed as early as 1528 that the sexton in every village should be re- quired to give instruction on week days in the Command- ments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, and also in the singing of hymns. Parents were required to send their children to this instruction. The sexton thus came into prominence as the pastor's assistant in the villages." 1 The real founder of the public school was August Hermann Francke. "His system included the study of nature, and provided for manual training, for girls as well as boys. . . . In 1763 Frederick the Great adopted his system for Prussia."* But the matter of chief em- 1 Religious Education and the Public School, Dr. George U. Wenner. * Ibid. io6 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE phasis in Francke's system was religious. The Church is the fruitful mother of an illustrious progeny. She is really the mother of popular education. In all her counsels, services and sacrifices, she has reenforced and fostered the policies of liberal and popular enlighten- ment. It would seem a thing most anomalous that the Amer- ican republic, a land first peopled by refugees from religious intolerance, a nation whose very corner stone was dedicated to the Christian religion and to the rights of man, should, among nominal Christian nations, be most prominent in eliminating religious instruction from her vast system of public education. In the main- tenance of such a policy there is perpetrated an enor- mous injustice against Christianity, that religious faith, to which more than to any other cause the nation owes its very greatness. The omission of religious teaching from OUT State-governed systems of education is the committal of an immeasurable wrong against the child- hood of the nation. I am quite aware of the fact that in several of our States the laws make permissible and provide for a certain amount of religious exercises in connection with the work of the secular school. Under the pressure of public sentiment such provisions are likely to be in- creased rather than lessened throughout the republic. It is very evident, however, in the light of experience that in the present developments these concessions by the States are not resulting in anything like an adequate biblical or Christian training for the childhood of the very States in which these provisions exist. SECULARIZED EDUCATION 107 Germany seems to be thought of by many of our people as the home of rationalistic and of destructive critical thought. It is the home of critical scholarship and of advanced educational ideals. But in the matter of religious education in her public schools Germany is Christian and reverent in a sense and measure to which we in America can make no claim. I cannot here enter into detailed statement of the German educational systems. In general, it is enough to state that, with the exception of schools devoted distinctively to trade, technical, or commercial training, religious education in schools below university grade is made compulsory. In the universities the teaching of religion is provided for in the theological faculty. Characteristic of the thoroughness of German educational methods, the teachers provided to conduct religious instruction represent usually a high order of scholarship. They conduct their work studiously and reverently, making their duties a matter of conscience and devotion. It seems evident to those who have had closest oppor- tunity to study the religious teaching thus required that its effect upon the national mind is both vital and uplifting. As a sample expression of the "aim sought" in this public teaching of religion, I quote from the Declaration of the Official Curriculum from the Volksschullen of the Kingdom of Wurtemburg as follows: "The nurture of the religious life in the school requires that the entire instruction and discipline of the institution shall be administered in the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. The opening and closing services of song io8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE and prayer should both contribute toward and give evidence of this. It is the task of specific religious instruction to acquaint the children with the facts and verities of salvation in such a manner that both a love for and an intelligent comprehension of evangelical Christianity shall result." In America one of our obstacles, largely regarded as insuperable, to the introduction of religious instruction in the public schools is the diversity of religious con- viction so characteristic of our population. We have with us in relatively great numbers, the Jew, the Catholic, the Protestant, and the men of no faith. In Germany this problem is largely met by segregation of the different faiths in the classroom, and by providing for Jews Jewish teachers, for Catholics Catholic teach- ers, and for Protestants Protestant teachers. This method ought not to prove impracticable for us in America. Of course it will not be claimed that this enforced religious teaching results in all cases in experimental and transformed spiritual lives. But it has this im- measurable value, that it makes religious truth a con- stituent part of education for the individual. So thorough is the German method of instilling religious truth that, on good authority, it is said: "It would be difficult to find on the streets of Berlin a boy (or girl) of fourteen or fifteen years of age who does not know the chief events of Old Testament history, the life and teachings of Jesus and his apostles, the best-known church hymns, the principal questions and answers from the Catechism, and a choice number of passages which he has mem- SECULARIZED EDUCATION 109 orized." 1 How many of our nominally Protestant or Catholic boys and girls, the products of our boasted public-school system, could meet a test like this? Dr. Thomas Nicholson, the highly efficient educational secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, frankly recognizes in the thought-mode of the times conditions which make it increasingly difficult to hold the masses to the churches or to bring them into hearty cooperation with the program of Christianity, 2 and of all causes which conspire to this result he believes on "mature reflection" that none is so potent as the "negative atti- tude of our whole system of public education to the religious element in education and life." Aside from what is ordinarily understood by the phrase "our public-school system," we have a generous number of institutions known as "State universities." Many of these attract to themselves large student com- munities, command numerous teachers of the highest educational type, conduct nearly every kind of pro- fessional or technical departments, and under the direction of the most expert specialists possible of procurement. Some of these institutions, all of them comparatively young, already rank in real strength with the very fore- most of our older universities. These universities, by reason of the liberal financial policies of the State, and because of their rich equipment in appliances, are destined to take on greatly increased strength and a widening sway in American university life. A characteristic of 1 In the preparation of the above statements of German educational methods, I have bad before me a highly valuable manuscript prepared by Dr. Henry H. Meyer, himself an eminent German scholar, in which he treats this whole question from the standpoint of first-hand observation. * Militant Methodism, p. 141. no CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE these State universities is, that while they support strong schools for nearly all professional departments, they, unlike the German universities, make no provision for maintaining biblical or theological faculties. Religious teaching is a function to which they give no place, and for which they assume no responsibility. In the last fiscal year our State universities were supported at an expense of more than $72,000,000. This large expenditure reflects great credit upon both the wisdom and the generosity of the various Legislatures in making so liberal provision for the highest type of education under State auspices. But the very largeness of this provision for secular education only makes more marked by contrast the neglect of all provision for re- ligious instruction in these institutions. If religion represents one of the primal instincts of human nature > if culture of the religious nature is vitally and absolutely essential to a complete and ideal development of char- acter, then the failure of a chief educational institution to make provision for such culture may prove just ground for the severest indictment against such institution itself. If religion is a matter of supreme importance to the individual and to society, then that education is most valuable which vitally and sanely enforces the best ideals of religious instruction. If religion is a matter of supreme importance to the individual and to society, then that institution which fails to give a capital place to religious instruction fails disastrously in meeting the highest educational ideals. The contribution which an educational institution makes to religion is, by certain standards, susceptible SECULARIZED EDUCATION in of proximate measurement. For instance, an institution whose teaching faculty intelligently and zealously sup- ports religious ideals will be likely to send forth a certain percentage of its graduates into distinctively religious work. Candidates for the ministry and for foreign missionary service, it seems reasonable to assume, should be found in considerable numbers among such graduates. Dr. Nicholson assumes that at least twenty thousand Methodist students are in attendance upon State uni- versities. Yet all these institutions combined supply not more than four per cent of the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He cites one great State university, with a thousand student members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and with three thousand members of other evangelical churches, and with a body of alumni numbering eight thousand, which in a history of fifty years has given less than twenty ministers to all evangelical churches combined. In contrast to these figures it seems significant that in five years, from 1904-09, the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Illinois, furnished four fifths as many recruits for our foreign missionary service as all the State universities in the United States combined. And in the same five- year period two of the small Methodist colleges furnished five more missionary recruits than all the State uni- versities, and yet the endowment of these lesser colleges does not represent a hundredth part as much as that of the State universities in question. Religious purposes are born and nurtured in a religious atmosphere. It is estimated that twenty-two per cent of all college-bred Methodist ministers reach their de- ii2 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE cision to enter the ministry while in their undergraduate courses in religious colleges. This is a great testimony to the vitality of religious influences existing in these colleges. A history of our great State universities reveals as positive a divorce between their general policies of education, and the distinctive mission of religious teach- ing, as is shown in institutions of grammar and high school grades in the nation-wide system of public education. 1 It should, of course, be borne in mind that the public- school system is the one chiefly considered in this dis- cussion. There is a large number of schools which are established and conducted under religious auspices. It is to be assumed that definite attention is given to religious instruction in schools of this class. The institution of the Sunday school is in universal vogue among the Christian denominations. The latest returns show an enrollment of Sunday school scholars in the United States of 13,732,841. The production of Sunday school literature for this great army of boys and girls has resulted in the development of some of the largest publishing interests in the country. The quality of study material for the schools has been an evolution, showing a continuous improvement through the years. Both men and women in increasing numbers, persons representing thorough biblical scholarship, the most approved pedagogical methods, and masters of 1 In discussing the State universities, I have drawn freely upon Dr. Nicholson's address delivered before the Convention of Methodist Men in Indianapolis, October, 1913. While he deals specifically with the relations of State universities to the Methodist Episcopal Church, I can have no doubt that the figures given are typical of like results in other denominations. SECULARIZED EDUCATION 113 winsome style, have been secured by the various pub- lishers to prepare the textbooks, the periodicals, and the weekly papers devoted to Sunday school uses. One of the papers, with which the writer is familiar, has a weekly circulation of more than five hundred thousand copies. It is impossible to measure the moral and spiritual values of the Sunday school. But if it be true, as would appear, that religious train- ing of children in the home is on the decrease, and that for multitudes of American children the Sabbath school is the only place in which they receive any systematic religious instruction, then self-evidently the Sunday school does not, and, in the very nature of the case cannot, meet the larger and vital demands of the situation. The public school has the child for thirty hours in the week. The Sunday school confines its classroom work to one hour in the week. The classes in the public schools are taught by trained, licensed, and paid teachers. The classes in the Sunday school are in charge of volun- teer teachers, many of whom have neither training nor competency for their task. I am far from a disposition to impugn motives or to depreciate merit. The willing- ness on the part of any one to enter seriously upon the work of Sunday school teaching merits commendation. But from not a little observation I am much impressed that one of the capital difficulties of the expert Sunday school superintendent, in the average community, is in securing a sufficient number of competent persons for teaching the classes in his school. The Sunday school when awarded all just recognition ii 4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE is in itself greatly inadequate to the mission of furnish- ing religious education to the children of the nation. The grave fact and the fact is grave beyond measure- ment is that in this country the sane and efficient methods of religious education of childhood as now operative are entirely disproportionate to the vast needs and importance of the situation itself, and to the vital moral necessities of the case. The gravity of the situa- tion is great beyond any measure to which the national thought has yet awakened. The nation that fails to imbue its own children educationally with high ethical and spiritual ideals, is a nation which in the most vital sense fails to fortify its own future. It is but an utterance of what will be generally recognized as sound psychologically to declare that there can be no complete education without religion. The grave consequences of our national neglect in this vital department of education are more and more receiving attention from our ablest educators, and to multitudes of thoughtful people are bringing an increasing sense of apprehension and alarm. Just recently the Central Councils of the Roman Catholic Church in this country have been taking this matter into renewed and most careful consideration. The parochial school system of this Church fails to meet the educational needs of multitudes of its children, and the authorities are advising their parishes everywhere throughout the nation to avail themselves of special times and places, either with or without the cooperation of the public schools, for the special religious education of the children. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in SECULARIZED EDUCATION 115 America is perhaps the most representative body of American Protestantism. At its first meeting, held in Philadelphia, in 1908, the question of the religious education of children was regarded as one of the most important for consideration. At the second meeting of this Council, held in Chicago, in December, 1912, a report on this question was presented in which the most definite and urgent resolutions were adopted urging upon national educational authorities the imperative importance of making a general provision for religious education of the childhood of the nation. In several parts of this country and of Canada methods have already been entered upon for the intro- duction of specific courses in Bible and religious train- ing in normal and high schools, which courses are to be conducted under the joint auspices of the Church and the public-school authorities. The question of the religious education of children is one of such primal importance; it relates itself so im- peratively, so vitally, to the moral welfare of the nation as to make it unbelievable that it will not in the near future receive its rightful recognition and coordination in our educational life. EDUCATED LEADERSHIP 117 In this day, just because we are moving out to a newer and large world-view, the minister must be reasonably familiar with the thought- movement of the time and must easily be able to orient himself. This aspect of contemporary life, not to mention the rising tide of knowledge on the part of the people generally, makes the best possible educational equipment imperatively necessary to the preacher of to-day. ... It is generally conceded that the college graduate has greater chances of success than the man who has neglected his early training. And the difficulties to success with an educational handicap are admitted, for the most part, by men who suffer the disadvantages. ... I have often thought if I could get the ear of the Church at large, I would say, "Give your best young men to the ministry of the Church, for the need is great, and nothing less than the best will do." ... If I could get the ear of our college author- ities, I would say, "Pray God to help you select men for the fields, al- ready white to the harvest, for as no other men in the kingdom God has given you the opportunity to put over the Christian hosts a leadership well equipped and needing not to be ashamed." DR. THOMAS NICHOLSON. The question of religious education is the greatest single question which the Church has to face. Once we thought it was just the question of a subject; the making of a catechism, or arranging Sunday school lessons. Now we see that the main problem is not in the subject but in the soul. We have the new science of religious psychology and the new art of religious pedagogy. The great movement is on in the Church to-day. The minister must lead. And not one minister in ten is fitted for that task. . . . The final question in the success of the Church is not society, and collections, and buildings. It is men, Christian service at its highest efficiency. And the pivotal man is the minister. A rightly trained ministry would mean a Church doubled in its efficiency to-morrow. God has called us in the ministry to the highest work. We deal with the highest interests. We work with the strongest leverage upon men and the world. For that work we will give God the best and highest self that we can be, nor grudge the years of study that our college mate will give who looks to law or thinks of medicine. DR. HARRIS FRANKLIN RALL. 118 CHAPTER VII EDUCATED LEADERSHIP MANY difficulties which beset the present-day Church inhere in intellectual conditions which are quite dis- tinctive to the age. The time was in the older New England when the pulpit was the intellectual oracle of the community. The preacher was the best-educated man in the town. His exposition of the Bible, his teach- ing in theology, his views of public and social questions, were accepted as authoritative. But the day of a pulpit- teaching monopoly on questions religious, public, social has forever gone. The public press, omniscient in vision, gathering instant its knowledge from world-ends, is to-day thrusting its myriad and informing pages into all homes. There is more trained and scholarly intellect employed in the creation of a single great daily than is to be found in any one pulpit of the land. This daily has a fresh issue for every day in the year, and an eager audience of many thousands of readers for each issue. It brings to every home a current his- tory of the world, and gives information on every sub- ject which may challenge interest. The daily is demo- cratic in its treatment of thought. It treats all sorts of subjects with audacious freedom. On Sunday morning, when the minister is seriously meditating upon his im- pending pulpit message, the Sunday newspaper, laden with pictorial and literary attractions, is delivered in 119 120 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE most of the homes of the parish. Then the magazine, various in its literary product, a marvel of artistic make-up, furnished for trifling cost, lies upon all the living-room tables. And books books by celebrities, books by experts in all departments of knowledge and thought, books of religion, history, philosophy, science, of essays and poetry, books discussing with skill and lucidity all subjects which may appeal to the human intellect these may be had for the asking. Everybody who has intellectual taste may read books in these days. The preacher is no longer the most learned man in the community. The college man is abroad in the parish. The scientific expert is the preacher's next-door neighbor. The appreciative reader and devourer of best books, here and there, sits in the pew. The preacher of to-day has a man's work to do to keep himself intel- lectually abreast with the best-informed men and women of his parish. If he should happen to have an inferior intellectual equipment; if he should be lacking in that trained mental discernment which would qualify him for selecting the best courses for his own reading; if perchance he were mentally indolent; and if with all he should be something of a faddist as such men some- times are would it, under these circumstances, be surprising if he should fail to command a large intellectual following in his community? A great fact, however unwelcome, which must compel recognition in any adequate view of the relations of the Church to the age is that much in the accepted and popular thought of the Church is out of adjustment with the leading and most formative thought of our EDUCATED LEADERSHIP 121 times. We are living in an age vastly transitional, an age whose necessary and inevitable thinking has made great departures from a large body of belief and custom out of which much of the typical and traditional thought of the Church took its form. We are citizens to-day of a widely different intellectual world from that in which either Saint Paul, Martin Luther, or John Wesley lived. Since the advent of Kant and Darwin, philosophy and science have been reborn. The world's most formative thinking voices itself in new postulates. The age is one of great intellectual reconstructions, an age which with clear vision is moving sure-footedly out into new regions of philosophy, of science, of psychology and sociology, regions such as were never before possible of exploration. This intellectual world of which I now speak is one in which only elect thinkers are fully matriculated. It is a world into which the great rank and file of church life have as yet very little entered. It is a world whose intellectual positions unfortunately have too often been construed as antagonistic to time-honored views which the Church has cherished. It has thus resulted that many good men, men of clean morality, of unquestioned integrity and of high Christian conscientiousness, have very little appreciation of, or sympathy with, the great intellectual trends of modern scholarship. The prevalent and popular thought of the Church-trained life has not yet adjusted itself to, or come into harmony with, the growing and ruling scientific philosophy of the age. The above is written in no spirit of reproach. A great majority of the best people in our churches, people whose loyalty to Jesus Christ is beyond all question, 122 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE have neither the training nor the intellectual habits which qualify them for a first-hand judgment of the deeper thought-movements of the age. In so far, however, as there is any real cleavage between the cherished traditional thought of the Church and the positions of modern scholarship, this cleavage can only be justly regarded as likely to be fraught with disastrous consequences. It can only mean the putting asunder, and into alien camps, forces which ought to be joined in indissoluble harmony. If the voice of the Church condemns and derides modern scientific think- ing, this will be a reason why the thinker trained under modern methods will do his thinking and his work out- side of the Church. This very result has already taken place in lamentable measure. The college-trained men and women of the nation, the men and women of inde- pendent and self-respecting thought, are not working in the Church in any such measure as could be devoutly wished. And this is the fact while the professional classes, the very classes whose work requires a liberal education, are relatively increasing in all the cities of the land. The college men who really find an inspiring and satisfying intellectual atmosphere in church affiliations are not as numerous as they should be. It is a great misfortune to themselves that so large a proportion of the most effectively trained minds of the age fail to find a satisfactory intellectual environment within the fellowship of the Church. On the other hand, who can measure the enormous moral asset which is lost to the Church itself because of its failure to appreciate and assimilate the wealth EDUCATED LEADERSHIP 123 of truth which modern scientific thought and investi- gation are giving to the world? No life more needs the enrichment, the stimulus, the uplift, furnished from the products of modern scientific thinking, than does the ordinary rank and file life of the Church. The Church cannot continue to live and thrive under any policy that makes it inhospitable to the largest freedom of the intellectual life. Thought, and the enlarging perception of truth which comes as a product of thought, are not simply the ozone, they must be reckoned with as vitalizing and indispensable constituents in the very life-blood of the Church itself. A great need of the Church to-day in its governing life is complete emancipation from any atmosphere of intellectual narrowness and intolerance. This is by no means to imply that the Church at its highest sources should not sedulously guard itself against error. The Church stands, or should stand, for the highest truth that relates itself to human life and destiny. It should equally and broadly stand for all affiliated truth. Its custodians will, however, be in best position to guard the Church itself from injurious error when they them- selves are largest and sanest partakers of present-day thought as related to the problems of the Christian life. If I were to suggest that one of the present imperative needs of the Church is a newly formulated theology, the proposition would strike some as audacious, if not incendiary. Yet nevertheless the suggestion represents a movement now in vigorous process. And why not? The historic theologies of the past were formulated in i2 4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE their respective ages by the most scholarly minds of the Church. Whatever the attitude of the Church toward modern scientific thought, it has always de- pended for the exposition and defense of its faith upon scholarly minds. And no historic theology has come to us which has not been largely correlated with, and shaped by, the philosophy prevalent in the age of its origin. The purpose of theology is to make religion intelligible and convincing to thought. But this pur- pose cannot be realized unless theology is so stated as to be in some correlation with the general knowledge of the age. Most of the historic theologies are deficient in a sympathetic or effective correlation with those views of man and of the universe which modern scientific knowledge has forced upon the age. These theologies for body of substance were formulated in prescientific times. They had no prescient outlook upon such a thought-world as ours of to-day. A new scientific category well-nigh covering man's entire physical, psychic, and social life, and the entire range of cosmic being, has gained a firm place in the postulates of modern intelligence. Neither the Church nor the world needs a new gospel. The old and divine gospel does need the benefit of making its appeal to the modern mind disencumbered of superseded thought. The theology that will be effective in the twentieth cen- tury is one that will not be at war with clear convictions resting upon twentieth-century knowledge. The ideal magnum opus of such a theology has not yet appeared, but the material for its making is abundant on every hand. EDUCATED LEADERSHIP 125 In the meantime it will prove an unhallowed thing if the Church and learning shall mutually cherish a divisive spirit. Learning needs the Church. Not less does the Church need all the knowledge and wisdom which the most learned can bring to her altars. Spirit- uality and intelligence are the twin forces which are to bring triumph to God's kingdom in the earth. In connection with, and growing largely from, the changing intellectual atmospheres of the age, it will be conceded that a condition of vital importance to the strength and influence of the Church inheres in the character of its ministry. That the Christian minister should be a good man goes without the saying. This phase need not be discussed. A necessity of the age, an imperative necessity, one which rarely, if ever, should be disregarded, is that young candidates for the ministry shall not be permitted to enter upon their lifework until they have first received the highest advantages of the schools. No young man who proposes to give his life to the Christian ministry does justice to himself, his calling, or his Church, who seeks to enter upon this work without first giving himself most thorough educa- tional preparation. The intellectual standards of the age demand nothing less of him than this. It is not a primary question whether a man entering the ministry short of the highest professional preparation may not be useful. Such a man may have native gifts, sympathy and insight which will render him in the pastorate even a greater success than his college-bred brother in a neighboring parish. But even so, this man, with hardly an exception, has robbed himself and i26 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE robbed the Church of an important increment of power and largeness of view which would have come to him with more thorough preliminary training. I know the difficulties that poverty sometimes, often I believe, puts in a young man's way. But over against this, any young man who has in him the stamina that prophesies fitness for future leadership in the ministry can find ways of overcoming these difficulties. We have heard much about self-made men; but, as a rule, the only first-class self-made men in the professional world to-day are men who have made their way through the highest professional training schools. A recent investigation by the Board of Education of one of the largest evangelical denominations, covering two decades ending respectively with the years 1880 and 1890, shows the following facts: Of those who responded to a special letter of inquiry sent to all ministers, asking of their educational preparation prior to their entering upon their active ministry, of three hundred and ninety-three replying who had received less preparation than the educational requirement of the Church, only one can be ranked as having risen to prominent leadership; while of four hundred and thirty-eight who had met the educational requirements, forty-six have risen to historic leadership in the denomination. Some denominations more than others have insisted upon high standards of ministerial education. It is not easy in this matter to secure reliable statistics from all the denominations; but from such information as I have been able to obtain, I am impressed that more than one half of all the active evangelical ministers of EDUCATED LEADERSHIP 127 the nation entered upon their ministry, each with less than the equivalent of an ordinary high-school education. The astronomer takes his pupils up into the observatory, where with his telescope he can sweep all the constella- tions of the skies. This is the great advantage of the college and seminary-trained men. The college and seminary do not teach all knowledge. But under trained leadership they take the young mind up into the observ- atory where can be traced the boundaries of the great and important divisions of knowledge and of thought. The young man really college-trained enters the door of professional life, not only with quickened ideals, not only in possession of many valuable facts and ideas, but with a sense of proportion as to intellectual values. He knows what fields he may most profitably enter for investigation. He carries to his work disciplined faculties which vastly enhance his working power. He easily makes himself master of tasks before which other men fail. The man of defective preliminary education enters the ministry under a tremendous handicap. The chances are that he has never acquired the habits of a student. He does not really know how to study. He does not know what to study. As it is, however, with all the colleges and theological seminaries under the auspices of the Church, to say nothing of the multitude of universities and colleges throughout the land, a pronounced majority of American preachers are graduates neither of the college nor the seminary. This is not pleasant ground to traverse. I am farthest from a disposition personally to arraign or berate the man of limited education. His limitation 128 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE is his misfortune. But, the situation is one of ominous portent for the Church of the twentieth century. It is not reasonable to assume that men not imbued with the ideals of a liberal education can readily rise to an adequate conception of the intellectual demands which rightfully in these times are laid upon the Christian ministry. I have had some opportunity to observe the intel- lectual habits of ministers. This may be laid down as true: The great preachers, the preachers who com- mand the largest hearing, are, almost without exception, omnivorous readers. They are great buyers of books. They are students. But there is a woeful number of our ministers who are not in any pronounced sense book-lovers. Their libraries in many cases are pitiably meager. They give no evidence either in public utter- ance or in private conversation of commanding familiarity with scholarly themes. To say nothing about the temptation to which many such men are exposed to run into intellectual fads, eccentricities, and crankisms, insufficient intellectual equipment is quite sure to be found in company with mental indolence. In the mean- time the price of all this to the Church is most costly. The intellectual life, really the most influential life of the community, will not put itself under the leadership of such a ministry. The minister whose intellectuality does not command the respect of the high-school boys and girls in his community is a man misplaced. There is, of course, another large side to this whole question. It is the side created by petty denominational rivalries which find their expression largely throughout EDUCATED LEADERSHIP 129 the country in small and struggling churches, churches which represent a meager and pitiably insufficient ministe- rial support, and all furnishing a background largely destitute of incentive to ministerial hope, ambition, or energy. As has already been noted, we have in this country an absurd numerical excess of distinct Protes- tant denominations. In many instances a half dozen of these denominations, all weak and therefore inefficient, are struggling to occupy a ground which otherwise might strongly and profitably be ministered to by a single church. Is it any wonder that men of large business discernment and administrative ability have in innumerable instances lost both interest and faith in this kind of church development? A condition, however, which causes the perpetuation of a needless number of weak and rival churches inevitably means a well-nigh corresponding number of ill equipped ministers. In entering the plea for a high standard of ministerial education I am farthest possible from the assumption that an educated intellect is by any means solely, or even chiefly, the condition of an efficient ministry. The man of good normal mind, with a pronounced spiritual experience, with a divine love of men begotten in his life, consecrated in purpose, a diligent student of his English Bible, and possessing a tactful approach to his fellow men this kind of a man, as a winner of souls, will be far more efficient than could be expected of the most critically trained intellect otherwise destitute of the qualities named. The beautiful and just portrait of the faithful preacher i 3 o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE which Goldsmith, in his "Deserted Village," furnishes is a picture of something far other than that of simply a trained intellect. It is a picture of love, of devotion, of charity, of helpfulness, of unselfishness, all blending themselves into a single life, of a service so Christlike that its influence rested like a benediction upon the entire community: At church, with meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorned the venerable place; Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools who came to scoff remained to pray. The service past, around the pious man, With ready zeal each honest rustic ran; E'en children followed, with endearing wile, And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile. His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed, Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed; To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. But when fullest emphasis is laid on other qualities essential to highest ministerial efficiency, there is in it all no concession to ideals of defective intellectual education for our modern ministry. The minister's mission is, or should be, largely with childhood. He ought to be a master of the pedagogy and psychology of childhood training. He is to minister in a community where education is general, in which the professional men, and the men of leading influence, are educated. In general culture he should be at least a peer among the ablest of them all. Concerning the Bible, its teach- ing, its history, he ought to know more than any of his neighbors. While as expounder of the Scriptures, he is not to be a gratuitous disturber of immature minds, EDUCATED LEADERSHIP 131 nor to treat recklessly inherited views which his intelligence does not permit him to share, it will still be to his discredit if he is not familiarly at home with both the discussions and the conclusions reached about the Bible by the most scholarly and competent Christian thinkers. An imperative demand upon the Christian minister of to-day is that he command the intellectual respect of the community in which he ministers. Lacking this, whatever other qualities he may have, he is destined to fail at points of vital need. PLUTOCRACY 133 Our intensest anger is not that mouths are hungry, but that insufficent physical nourishment means mind and heart unfed; not that bodies are crowded together in the homeless warrens of poverty, but that then the soul is without air to breathe or room to grow in, and the decencies and dignities owed to manhood, womanhood, and childhood are denied; not that men's shoulders are bowed down by hopeless, aimless labor, but that the soul's power to do its proper work is threshed out of it. And this indignation can demand no less a right for all men than untram- meled growth of power for wisdom and beauty, for joy and love, for right- eousness and holiness. The demand is not for things, except as things serve souls, not for conditions, except as conditions further the inner life. CHARLES HENRY DICKINSON. Life is holy. Respect for life is Christian. Business, setting Profit first, has recklessly used up the life of the workers, and impaired the life of the consumers wherever that increased profit. The life of great masses has been kept low by poverty, haunted by fear, and deprived of the joyous expression of life in play. . . . With unanimous moral judg- ment mankind has always loved and exalted those who sacrificed their self-interest to the common welfare, and despised those who sold out the common good for private profit. The cross of Christ stands for the one principle of action; the bag of Judas stands for the other. God's country begins where men love to serve their fellows. The devil's country begins where men eat men. I submit the proposition that the over- growth of private interests has institutionalized an unchristian principle, and that we must reverse the line of movement if we want to establish the law of Christ. PROFESSOR WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH. 184 CHAPTER VIII PLUTOCRACY I DESIRE to preface this chapter by some statements regarding the legitimacy and rights of private wealth. Both have sure standing ground in Christian ethics. Nothing can be more irrational, nothing less justified, than an indiscriminate outcry against the owners of wealth. The man who by honest skill, industry, and thrift, amasses for himself a fortune must, in the very process, practice and develop certain qualities which in themselves are essential traits of Christian char- acter. I find a list of these qualities nowhere better suggested than by Dr. W. M. Clow. "Industry, fidelity, foresight, careful attention to details, self-denial, and a wise regard to a man's spending and pleasuring. No man can achieve riches without a constant self-control, a careful providence, and a costly observance of the virtues which all men find difficult." 1 No interpretation of Christ's utterances concerning wealth and some of these are very severe can be justly construed as a condemnation of wealth per se. That Christ did most vividly portray the responsibilities of wealth is beyond question. He uniformly preached its possession as a grave moral trust. For its use its holder in every instance is held strictly responsible as a steward who must give account of his stewardship. 1 Christ in the Social Order, p. 114. 135 136 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE The rich must be rich in alms for the needy. It is their privilege to create and contribute to appliances for the development and education of artistic, technical, and special gifts, gifts which may finally serve the common good. As elsewhere indicated, it is difficult to conceive how the finer cultural interests of society can either be best or well served without a liberal consecration of privately directed wealth. Even Mr. Hillquit acknowl- edges that for most of its special and valuable endow- ments society is indebted to the gifts of private wealth. He says, "To this capitalist system of wealth distribution we are largely indebted for our libraries, our hospitals, rescue missions, and charitable institutions of all descriptions." Its investment in the development of industrial and commercial interests is an entirely legitimate use of wealth. None is to be more respected than he who uses his trained experience and talent in the develop- ment of legitimate and useful business. Such a man is a benefactor. A fact worthy of special emphasis is that in periods of industrial depression many privately owned enter- prises are conducted principally with reference to the good of labor. Many such enterprises, while paying their labor the highest wages of the market, are pro- ducing only the narrowest margins of profit, if not even suffering financial loss. In some cases the demand for the commodity dealt with is so limited, or, as in most cases, the competition of business is so keen and close, as to make impossible any special division of earnings as above actual wages paid to labor employed. PLUTOCRACY 137 This benevolent course on the part of ownership so largely characterizes the average business world as to make it little less than an atrocity for the socialistic writer, or organized labor, to indiscriminately charge the business proprietor as being a robber of the poor. The man who assumes the capitalistic risk of con- ducting a business, paying his labor the highest wage of the market, thereby leaving for himself only a legit- imate income and a narrow margin for capital invested, merits commendation as a benefactor in his com- munity. Christ did not condemn the possession of wealth per se. His pictures, however, of the perils of wealth are so appalling as almost to make one feel that it is better and safer to be poor than to be rich. The rich man who trusteth in his riches cannot hope to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It were easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. An insidious deceit- fulness attends the lust of wealth which chokes the very word of life out of the human soul. The rich man who trusted to the abundance of his treasure, and, therefore, proposed for himself a life of banqueting and pleasure is characterized by Christ as a fool. And he adds, "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." A young man, so out- wardly attractive in character as especially to challenge the interest of Jesus, came to him asking what he should do to gain eternal life. Christ said unto him, "Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." And when he heard this he was very sorrowful, i 3 8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE * for he was very rich. Saint Paid says, "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Saint James pronounces the most caustic woes against the rich who oppress the poor and defraud the laborer. The trend of New Testament teaching unmistakably makes the possession of wealth a great responsibility. Its spirit demands of the rich that they treat their wealth as a moral trust. No rich proprietor has a right to revel in a surplus of wealth while those who have reaped down his fields or toiled for wage at his machines are forced to do with the barest necessities of life. The capitalist who employs an army of labor at a barely living wage and who inordinately swells his private fortune makes no atonement for such a wrong by ostentatiously founding and endowing institutions for the public. Selfishness is a great foe of social and moral progress. Between the enlightened Christian conscience and worldly selfishness there is, and must be, irrepressible conflict. Selfishness detrimental to both .individual and social welfare is not confined to any one class or condition of men. It is as positively a characteristic of the poor as of the rich, of those socially most helpless as of those in privileged life. Selfishness is a great detraction from character. However environed, no one can come to his best save as, by the transforming power of higher motives, the spirit of selfishness the kind of selfishness which seeks its own end regardless of the interest of others has been dethroned from the life. PLUTOCRACY 139 In all the range of human motives there is probably no single factor in connection with which selfishness shows its moral obliquity, or its heartless despotism, more supremely than in the acquisition and uses of money. The tyrannies of selfishness have marked the pathway of history with tragedies. It is the foundation upon which all despotisms have been planted. It has been the breeder of slaveries, of castes, of spurious aristocracies, and of all kinds of invidious distinctions which all through the ages have disfranchised the mul- titudes from participation in the higher attainments of manhood. It has been the fruitful corrupter of morals, the betrayer of the innocent, and, clad in priestly robes, it has audaciously performed its functions at the very altar dedicated to the high purposes of re- ligion. Selfishness is the one power which through the ages has sent right to the scaffold, and has kept wrong upon the throne, yet it has been reserved for this most en- lightened and privileged age of civilization to erect on the basis of money one of the most widespread, arrogant, and heartless of despotisms. There never was a des- potism that held under its dominion a larger census of defenseless subjects than the money power of this Christian age. It is not the purpose of this discussion to deny the legitimacy of money, nor yet to inveigh against large capitalistic combinations in promotion of world-serving enterprises. I do, however, distinctly challenge the moral legitimacy of capitalistic monopolies which more and more include within the control of huge and close i 4 o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE corporations the industries of a nation; corporations directed by a privileged few, and from whose counsels and revenues the masses are excluded, and whose com- bined power and policies make it practically impossible for men of smaller capital successfully to enter the field in competitive enterprise. I know something of what is said in justification of monopolies. They profess to serve the greater com- munity with the best product and at prices as reason- able as is consistent with the most economical creation and distribution of the product itself. They claim to be able to regulate the quantities of production, the prices of sale, and thus to give stability to industry and to the market. And if it be true that the great com- binations exclude a multitude of lesser capitalists from entering successfully into businesses directed by them- selves, it is claimed as a compensating offset that the really capable, those who might otherwise become proprietors, are sought to fill responsible and remunerative, though subordinate, positions in the combinations. Thus the trusts appear ostensibly in the role of philanthropic guarantors against financial want in behalf of those whom they select as having valuable business and exec- utive ability for their service. So a multitude of salaried men, who are notified by a decree as inexorable as fate that they will never be permitted to enter business for themselves, may have reason for devout gratitude that through the sovereign power, wisdom, and beneficence of the gigantic machine, they will be permitted to live in physical comfort throughout their days. Who with his soul thoroughly imbued with Christ's PLUTOCRACY 141 conception of the Fatherhood of God and the brother- hood of man does not feel, even if he is unable to define, the great moral wrong inhering in the situation? The very basic assumptions of capitalistic and selfish monopoly are an affront against all the better ideals of civilization. As institutions these monopolies are a menace to dem- ocratic government. Their practical tendency is to install over the very life of the nation a soulless, arrogant, and irresistible oligarchy. No less able and eminent an authority than President Wilson in his recent articles on "The New Freedom" has vigorously voiced the dangers inhering in the situa- tion. He says: The life of the nation has grown infinitely variant. It does not center now upon questions of governmental structure or of the distribution of governmental powers. It centers upon questions of the very structure and operation of society itself, of which government is only the instru- ment. ... A new nation seems to have been created which the old formulas do not fit or afford a vital interpretation of. ... There is a sense in which in our day the individual has been submerged. . . . While most men are thus submerged in the corporation, a few, a very few, are exalted to power which as individuals they could never have wielded. To-day the every- day relationships of men are largely with great impersonal concerns, with organizations, not with other individual men. . . . Our laws still deal with us on the basis of the old system. . . . What this country needs above everything else is a body of laws which will look after the men who are on the make rather than the men who are already made. . . . No country can afford to have its prosperity originated by a small con- trolling class. ... In the new order government and business must be associated closely. . . . But it is an intolerable thing that the government of the republic should have got so far out of the hands of the people, should have been captured by interests which are special and not general. In the train of this capture follow the troops of scandals, wrongs, inde- cencies, with which our politics swarm. . . . Why are we in the presence, why are we on the threshold, of a revolution? . . . Don't you know that this country from one end to the other believes that something is wrong? . . . We are in a temper to reconstruct economic society, as we were once in a temper to reconstruct political society, and political society itself i 4 2 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE may undergo a radical modification in the process. . . . We are upon the eve of a great reconstruction. It calls for creative statesmanship. 1 The single fact which I wish to emphasize in this casual discussion of the selfishly monopolistic corpora- tions is that in so far as they dominate the character and policies of our economic civilization they stand directly opposed to the progress of vital Christianity and of true church life in the community. Their spirit and policies are in direct antagonism to the real brother- hood of man in Christ Jesus. These statements may seem like a hard arraignment; but, if so, the arraignment is intended against the tendency and effect of a certain type of institutions rather than against the personal character or motives of individuals who may be interested in promoting these institutions. I am quite aware of all that may be said in commendation of great benev- olences which have been initiated by men grown rich through the monopolistic corporation. I know something of the vast endowments which from the same general sources have been conferred upon universities, libraries, hospitals, and other benev- olent public institutions. I have no doubt of the great intrinsic values inhering in such endowments as reen- forcing needed agencies for promoting the public welfare. But, after all, I am impressed that, in the light of a clear and unprejudiced moral judgment, it must be conceded that the very ability of so many private indi- viduals to bestow phenomenally large endowments upon public institutions is itself a symptom of an unideal, 1 While having read with sympathetic appreciation President Wilson's articles in the World's Work, I am indebted for the quotations in the above form to an article by Dr. Charles J. Bushnell, In the American Journal of Theology for October, 1913. PLUTOCRACY 143 an essentially abnormal, condition of the economic world. With reference to great numbers of individuals pro- moting and benefiting by the monopolistic trust both exceptional ability and high personal character must be promptly conceded. That they are conscientious, benevolent, and in many cases men of rare insight, men often of exceptional personal and social charm, is readily to be admitted. But these men have been intensely educated in the direction of their own pur- suits. They see things in their own light. They are largely the creation of the very interests to which they have so fully given their devotion. The very interests which have absorbed them, -and the exceptional gains which they have realized, have filled their vision with a lure which has given both color and limitation to their social and moral judgments. Not all great capitalists are to be indiscriminately condemned. They, in their very monopolistic ambitions, in their essentially selfish modes of life, in their practical isolation of themselves into a select oligarchy in these, and in kindred qualities so conspicuously represented in the lives of the extremely rich, we see only the fateful product of a plutocratic philosophy. That such men are often benevolent is a testimony to their essential humanity. In the large benefactions which they now and then bestow the story of at least their partial triumph over motives which would prompt them to be utterly hard and sordid is told. I recur to a single sentence used by President Wilson. Speaking of the fact that the government of the republic has been so largely "captured by interests which are 144 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE special and not general," he says: "In the train of this capture follow the troops of scandals, wrongs, inde- cencies, with which our politics swarm." President Wilson speaks as a man of large observation of, and participation in, public life. Presumably, he is not indulging in mere rhetorical fulminations. He knows something of methods used by great corporate interests in connection with politics and legislation. The financial interests have sought and secured large political control. The venal voter has been bribed at the ballot-box, and legislative majorities have been purchased. Through practical control of lawmaking bodies great sources of natural wealth have been as- signed to corporate interests without corresponding compensation to the public treasury or to the general welfare. Exclusive and most valuable franchises have been secured at but trifling costs, while the public, who should be the larger sharer in the benefits of these fran- chises, is forced to pay high tribute to these private corporations for its privileges. The press, omnipresent in influence, and which ought to be one of the most free, fearless, and illuminating teachers of righteousness, which ought to stand in unflinching advocacy of the rights of all men, is largely venalized by, and its great powers prostituted to, corporate greed. It goes, and should go, without the saying, that, morally measured, there are grades and grades of corporate interests. But still in the interests of greed essentially the most infamous and powerful combinations are effected. The liquor interest, highly capitalized, is not only enlisted in the murderous mission of making drunkards by the whole- PLUTOCRACY 145 sale, but it is in leagued alliance with the traffickers in prostitution and the recruiting agencies of white slavery. Traffics in these nefarious missions are so lucrative that their promoters stop not short of attempts to corrupt the municipal courts, and to bribe the officers of public safety into collusion and silence. The role of iniquitous traffics and of evil agencies, all instituted and employed in the interests of mammon, is too long for review. The whole list furnishes a dismal, frightful, and tragic arraignment of human nature. But perhaps, for our present purpose, the most pertinent phase of the larger question is that which is now staged in the relations between capital and labor. Aside from the two great forces which may not improperly be designated as capital and labor, there is a large other section which is sometimes named as the "middle class." With this latter class we need not here concern ourselves. In the last sixty years the wealth of this nation has increased well up toward two thousand per cent. Our present national wealth does not fall far, if any, short of $140,000,000,000. This figure is something amazing, and yet it is likely to be vastly increased in near decades to come. It may in a general way be safely said that the vast wealth-producing power of America came hand in hand with the general introduction of machinery. To the economic student it is but a truism to say that with the introduction of machinery the relations of labor to capital were not only radically, but well-nigh universally, changed. The introduction of machinery meant the passing out of the private artisan. It meant the advent of the i 4 6 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE big factory and the big capitalistic combination. It was the prophecy, quick of culmination, of what we now see, namely, upon the one hand, huge corporations in control of railroads, factories, and all the implements of production ; upon the other hand, a vast army of labor empty-handed, waiting at the gates of the corporation to sell its toil. The situation does not require much analysis. It is evident that in any industrial conflict the corporation will have immense advantage over labor. Allan L. Benson calls attention to the fact that "The Stanley Steel Committee's investigation showed that by a sys- tem of interlocking directorates, eighteen men control $35,000,000,000 of industrial property." The corpora- tions are in position to set the price both upon products and upon labor. The corporations, without reference to larger public needs, have the power to limit production to the line of most satisfactory profit to their directors. The corporations can water their stock, either for the purpose of selling at an exorbitant price to an innocent public, or to cover up the appearance of earning in- ordinate dividends on capital invested. The corporations can at any time close a factory, and thus throw a thousand men out of employment, and the men are helpless. The corporations, many of them, use automatic machinery which can readily be worked by women and children. The labor of women and children is cheaper than that of men. And so where the State has not interfered and the State has inter- fered in too few cases delicate women and sensitive growing children are overtaxed in the relentless demand PLUTOCRACY 147 to keep pace with machinery. The corporations, by the monopoly of raw material and control of the markets, have largely succeeded in suppressing competition as against themselves. But real competition is still left to do its depressing work in the labor world. Skilled and organized labor is able to take reasonable care of its own interests in the wage market, though its margins of surplus are always narrow. But aside from skilled and organized labor there is always a vast contingent of less skilled or unskilled labor which is absolutely dependent upon employment for daily bread. Under corporate regulation of the labor market, there are at best always in this country a mil- lion unemployed persons. In times of trade depression this number is likely to be greatly increased. This means that with certain grades of labor, at times with pretty much all grades, there is always a desperate condition of want. The laborer is compelled to sell his labor at any price he can command, however meager the price. It means in multitudes of cases that wives and children must all seek some outside work in order that the family may live at all. There is an enormous aggregate of prosperity in the country, but as between the corporations and the labor world, the division of this prosperity is inordinately one-sided. The representatives of the corporations are the capitalists. They control the banks, own the palaces, the pleasure yachts, the high-priced automobiles, and they command for themselves and families every material comfort and luxury which money may purchase. Their children may enjoy the most costly educational advan- 148 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE tages, all the benefits of travel, and they are recognized as the heirs of a privileged class. On the other hand, there is a great army, outnumbering many times the corporate capitalists, which is made up of simply wage-earners. This army neither owns the factories in which it toils, nor does it own the tools of production. It is made up of empty-handed workers. For the most part, it has no ownership in the humble dwellings which shelter its families. Its bank account, at best, furnishes but a frail barrier between its members and the disasters of want and sickness. Its children enter life, many of them greatly handicapped by poor physical and moral inheritance. Nearly all of them are under the social and industrial doom of adversity. The wages of the rank and file of this industrial army are inexorably held to a low level, not even in the most favorable cases such as at all proximately to permit such expenditure and luxury as that which may be easily affordable by the capitalist. This army always marches on the borders of dependence and want. Its members look forward, if at all, to an old age when they shall either be the wards of their children or of public charity. When the slender stipend of their wages ceases to come, multitudes of them look out into a world, God only knows how dreary. And, if this army is one of discontent, who shall wonder! It is a simple irony to say that these men are receiving far better wages, and they enjoy more physical comfort, than were ever known to their fathers. If this were true, it would scarcely amount to a mitigation in the case. It might be said of the capitalists that they too PLUTOCRACY 149 are receiving many times over the emoluments which came to their fathers, and for this reason they ought to be more than content. They ought on this account promptly to initiate policies of liberal distribution of their surplus revenues for the benefit of their less priv- ileged neighbors The truth is that the laborers live in a different world from that with which their fathers were familiar. If in this age of multiplied facilities and conveniences of life, factors which ought to be within the reach of all, and which ought to add real values to every life, they were content to live just as their fathers did, they would be less human than they are. But when the changed conditions are fairly measured it does not appear true that the modern laborer receives better wages or is better conditioned. The scale of the fathers' living bore no comparison with the necessitated high costs of the present day. The father, if a tradesman, owned the tools of his craft, had his own workshop and his own customers The worker of to-day is the owner of no tools, of no shop, and it would be impossible for him to compete against modern machinery for customers in any craft. The naked and tragic fact is that since civilization began there has been no class of nominally free workers who have been more absolutely at the mercy of an im- personal, irresponsible, and irresistible despotism than are the laborers to-day under corporate employment. It is no wonder that enlightened writers, analyzing carefully the whole situation, have characterized the domination of corporate capital over labor as the 1 50 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE most far-reaching and oppressive despotism known to history. Many millions of men, citizens in America, a land of abundant fruitfulness, witnessing all around them the rich reveling in surplusage and luxury, are com- pelled to know that themselves and their children are doomed to exclusion from any generous participation in the inordinate revenues appropriated by directorates to whom their own very lives and services are given in pawn for pitiable stipends. And does anybody really wonder that the army of labor is an army of discontent? This discontent is not only universal, but it is mightily prophetic. It witnesses eloquently to the growing democratic sense of the value of human rights. It is a revolt of the common intelligence against all social and industrial injustice. It is a revolt that will not lessen in volume or energy. Its voice is sure to be heard and heeded at the very seats of corporate power. The present dis- content of the laboring world is but the mere whispering of a pent-up power which carries in itself the moral dynamic of social and industrial revolution. May God grant that in this field Righteousness and Peace shall come together for early and decisive counsel! But what has all this to do with the Church? Much, every way. The Church, for one thing, is regarded by many of the poor as a luxury not to be afforded. If they cannot pay a full quota for its financial support, many accept the alternative of detaching themselves altogether. The pride of the poor, foolishly, will not brook, even before the altars of the sanctuary, social PLUTOCRACY 151 distinctions which they are unable to ignore. But, after all, it is not so much poverty which holds the masses of the poor in alienated separation from the Church as a widely prevalent feeling that the Church is not really the friend of the poor, that it does not seriously welcome them to its services, and that it is willing to make no great sacrifices for the purchase of their wel- fare. There is a wide practical conviction among wage- earners that the churches are principally conducted by, and in the interests of, the privileged classes. They feel that the money paid by the rich for the support of exclusive churches is money which they themselves have really earned, and the resentment thus awakened is more widespread than it is pleasant to contemplate. The poor widely feel that the Church, including its ministry, is in an attitude of paying undue and obse- quious honor to the rich, and that the one institution in society, within whose inclosures the rich and the poor ought to be treated alike as the common children of God, is in an offensive measure under the autocracy of men known more for the arrogance of wealth than for the graces of Christian character. It is of interest to note the attention which this fact is receiving in current literature. It is not necessary to literalize over-much or to apply the philosophy of Winston Churchill's Inside the Cup. Yet the plot of this really great story pretty much turns on the determined purpose of a single arrogant and unscrupulous plutocrat to control both the policy of his church and the official utterances and conduct of its rector. Mr. Harrison's V. V.'s Eyes, another power- i 5 2 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ful novel of recent issue, turns upon the contest between a wealth both heartless and shoddy in its shameful treatment of poor employees in the "Heth Works" and the spirit of a poor young physician of transparently beautiful Christian character who gave himself in con- tinual sacrifice and finally to a tragic death in the service of the poor. The hero of Basil King's The Way Home, himself a child of the rectory, incensed by the treatment which his own father received in old age from rich parishioners, and finally entering upon business life with the policy of considering no one's interest but his own, becoming rich, says one day to his morally sensitive wife that even she would not have married him if he had not had money. He says to her: "You cared for me because I am what I am. And I am what I am because I've got money. How I got it is secondary to you, as it is secondary to everybody else. The world is full of high-principled, right-meaning people who haven't words enough to express their scorn of the man who grows rich by what they choose to consider im- proper means, but who, when it comes to personal deal- ings, can't show him too plainly how much they respect him." And then at her protest he adds: "I don't put you lower, darling, than I put the whole order of bishops, priests, and deacons, and all the other idealists who are so easily outraged by our brutal modern ways of growing rich. They're awfully fluent in words; but once get rich, and" he snapped his fingers "you can do what you like with them." PLUTOCRACY 153 One of the most vivid of Mrs. Humphry Ward's recent books, Richard Meynell, furnishes a plot which turns upon the same conditions of conflict between plutocracy and the individual's right of free thought as are involved in the instances above cited. The Rev. William Muir, of Scotland, who has written one of the ablest books which have yet appeared on Chris- tianity and Labor, himself the son of an artisan, and having had in a long pastoral experience close and sym- pathetic contact with labor, says: There is nothing which is more fruitful in class hatred and civil war than the caste which still prevails in the Christian Church. Nothing has done more to promote the growth of the anti-Christian spirit which prevails among many sections of the working classes. Every new set of statistics of church attendance shows an ever smaller proportion of the community at public worship, and with the exception of the very rich the working classes seem more completely estranged than any other section. In some towns it is comparatively rare for genuine working- men to be connected with a church. Even what are paraded as working- class congregations are composed for the most part, so far as the men are concerned, and they are always the minority, of clerks, foremen, and small shopkeepers, and seldom have any considerable number of artisans. ... As a workingman who has been among workingmen all my days, and the son of a Christian artisan, I cannot pretend to be surprised that the laborers of our land cannot see that the Church of the living God has been their friend and champion, as it should have been. . . . Even yet caste is nowhere more powerful than in the Church of Christ. Nowhere is money mightier, and it seldom happens that inconvenient questions are asked as to how the money was made. It is enough that it be there to insure respect and influence. Nor is there anywhere more of that patronage of the poor which is quite as hateful as truckling to the rich. As for the results of all this, there is overwhelming testimony to the alienation of the working classes from the churches. To these testimonies cited from the prominent current literature of the day indefinite other statements could be added from like sources. This consensus of state- ment concerning the undue influence of plutocratic iS4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE wealth in the counsels of the Church is no accident. The authors furnishing this testimony are among the foremost seers of the times. They have high gifts for interpreting the social and industrial thought-movements of the age for practical busy men and women. This united testimony is significant. It points to a great fundamental necessity on the part of the Church to revise its own spirit and methods. It is really a call to the Church to seek renewal of its life in the Spirit of its Master. SOCIALISM 155 Competition, the hope of definite personal reward, and the fear of definite personal loss, which experience has shown to be extremely power- ful forces in economic life, would either disappear or be greatly diminished under Socialism, and the Socialist is unable to provide adequate sub- stitutes. . . . The evidence that the Socialist movement is unfriendly, if not actively hostile, to religion, and that the Socialist philosophy is incompatible with religious convictions, is overwhelming. PROFESSOR JOHN AUGUSTINE RYAN. The fact is that Socialism is the necessary spiritual product of cap- italism. It has been formulated by that class which has borne the sins of capitalism in its own body and known them by heart. It stands for the holy determination of that wronged and embittered class to eliminate those sins forever from the social life of mankind. Thus, Socialism is the historical Nemesis of capitalism and follows it like its shadow. The only influence that can long seal the mind of the industrial working class against the doctrines of Socialism is the power of religion in the hands of a strong Church. PROFESSOR WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH. What Socialism seems to believe, and to base upon, is the tenet that human nature has already attained, and is already perfect. If all men were true, pure, kind, honest, industrious, self-denying, some kind of Socialist state might be organized in a month. But in such an event the world would neither need nor desire Socialism. Any kind of state, even the most purely individualistic, would be efficient. The rich and the poor would meet together and the Lord would be the Maker of them all. But so long as some men are evil-minded, and foul in desire, and vile in habit, Socialism, of the kind commended to us, is impossible. W. M. CLOW, D.D. 156 CHAPTER IX SOCIALISM A FORCE, and a rapidly growing one, which stoutly challenges popular interest as against the Church, is Socialism. Socialism purposes to secure its end by political methods. It is, therefore, essentially a polit- ical movement. As such, up to the present time, it has secured far greater volume and momentum in Europe than in America. It has been represented in the German Parliament for about forty-five years, but in all other countries it does not date back at farthest beyond twenty- five years. In the United States it entered the field as a distinct political movement in 1892, polling at that election 21,164 votes. In 1912 the party cast 900,672 votes. In 1867 the socialistic votes of the world did not exceed 30,000. To-day the socialistic vote of the world exceeds 10,000,000. The movement now commands recognition in the public life of at least twenty-six na- tions. It presents one of the most compact and well- systematized organisms known to the modern world. In every nation in which it is organized its party roll is made up on the basis of dues-paying, active and per- manent membership. The national organizations not only have their State conventions as often as may seem required, but in every three years there is held an Inter- national Congress for joint deliberation and action. 157 i 5 8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE An International Socialist Bureau composed of all national parties, meeting periodically, transacts its bus- iness through a local executive committee and a permanent secretary. It is the boast of this organization that it can mobilize a larger force than any single government in the world. Nearly all the organized armies of labor the trade- unionists, the cooperative movements, and others, numbering in all many millions are lined up behind Socialism, "acting in accord with it on all questions of great public importance." It is of interest to note that in the United States alone there are now more than three hundred publications issued distinctively in the interests of Socialism. Five of these are daily news- papers, ten are monthly magazines, and the rest are weeklies. While most of these are issued in English, yet publications appear wherever a foreign language is much in vogue in the country. The above facts, for which I acknowledge a principal indebtedness to Mr. Morris Hillquit, a recognized authority on the subject, will for our purpose sufficiently represent the trend of Socialistic growth. It is a movement to which by no means can either the Christian or political fore- caster afford indifference. For definement of what Socialism really means, I quote what is probably Mr. Hillquit's most recent utter- ance on the subject: As a practical movement Socialism stands primarily for industrial readjustment. It seeks to secure greater planfulness in the production of wealth and greater equity in its distribution. Concretely stated, the Socialist program agitates a reorganization of the existing industrial system on the basis of collective or national ownership of the social tools. SOCIALISM 159 It demands that the control of the machinery of wealth-creation be taken from the individual capitalist and placed in the hands of the nation, to be organized and operated for the benefit of the whole people. The program calls for radical changes in the existing industrial machinery, political structure, and social relations. The form of society which would result from such changes is usually designated in the literature on the subject as the social state, or the Socialist ideal. From a comparison of numerous definitions, the above, I judge, is as representative and accurate a statement of the basic philosophy of Socialism as can be found in so brief compass. It must be promptly admitted that the Socialist creed amplified gives expression to many nobly humane, and even Christian, ideals. Socialism is opposed to war in all forms, national or industrial. Its apostles claim that within very recent years it has prevented the occurrence of more than one international war. At the outbreak of the Italian-Turkish war the prime minister of Turkey officially submitted a memorial to the Inter- national Socialist Bureau, at Brussels, asking for the intervention of the Socialists in behalf of his outraged country. Socialism would abrogate all industrial strife by removing its causes. It proceeds upon the unyielding assumption that in the existing order, and inevitably so, capitalism and labor are aligned against each other as two separate and irreconcilably antagonistic forces. That in this irrepressible conflict capitalism, by reason of controlling the appliances and tools of profit-making, has labor at an immense disadvantage. The industries of our country are rapidly concentrating in the hands of an ever-diminishing number of powerful financial concerns. The trusts, monopolies, and gigantic industrial combinations are coming to i6o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE be ruling factors in the life of the nation, industrial, political, and spirit- ual, and the masses of the people are sinking into a condition of ever- greater dependence. The number of propertyless wage-earners is on the increase; their material existence is growing more and more pre- carious, and the spirit of dissatisfaction and revolt is developing among them. The relations between the classes of producers and the employ- ing classes are marked by intense, though not always conscious, class- antagonism and by overt class struggles. . . . There is no more harmony between privately owned capital and wage-earning labor than there is between wolf and lamb. 1 The conditions of conflict as set forth in the above are universally assumed by Socialists as dire facts in our present civilization. Socialism would do away with these conditions by making impossible the private ownership of the appliances and tools of profit-making industries. It would hasten the day when all large private fortunes would be done away with. Just the process by which this should be effected is not altogether clear, even from socialistic utterances. It might be inferred that some Socialists think the evil of private fortunes should be eliminated by one bold act of govern- ment confiscation, transferring these fortunes at once to national control for the common good. By others it is advocated that a large tax should be levied against these estates year by year, effecting their early absorption into the public treasury. Still others advocate the purchase by the State of all corporate and private prop- erties of a wealth-producing character. In any event, it is not proposed in the socialistic state that there shall exist large private fortunes. Either by taxation, or by some system of government limita- tion, it will be secured that all citizens will stand on a 'HiUquit, SOCIALISM 161 plane of equality in possession of the fruits of wealth- producing factors. The socialistic scheme proposes many humane factors. It suggests the adequate care of the sick in hospitals or in the home, institutions in which the incompetent, unfortunates, and the helpless shall be amply cared for, and it calls for old-age pensions. It pledges itself to bestow upon every productive man, woman, and child an adequate living income. It suggests special support for mothers, so that they may meet the expenses of them- selves and children independently of husband or father. It promises art galleries, parks, public baths, cheap transportation, and all sorts of attractions and utilities to meet the common tastes and needs. It proposes a democracy of education for the childhood and youth of the nation. It purposes shortened hours of labor, and large margins of leisure for all workers. It believes that by bringing to the common life conditions of ma- terial sufficiency and comfort it will thereby greatly reduce the evils of intemperance and prostitution. So- cialism has a mightily optimistic faith in itself. It promises every material good which may seem essential to human welfare. It must be confessed that for the poor and toiling masses who confide in its gospel Socialism presents a program of great attractiveness. Not even the gospel of Christ proposes at first hand any such material paradise as that which Socialism pledges. And it may be emphasized that much of what is promised is, from the standpoint of Christian idealism, of a highly approvable and valuable order. 162 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE But now, having sought fairly to state the positions of Socialism, and having conceded full approval of, and sympathy with, many of its ideals, I still must judge Socialism at best as a veritable Utopia. It is an iridescent and delusive dream. It has been well named the "great illusion." Its whole scheme presents one maze of im- practicabilities. Consider, for instance, the socialistic scheme of prop- erty. All profit-making appliances and tools are to belong to the state, and by the state are to be admin- istered for the common good. Just how far in the socialistic state private ownership of material value is to be permissible is not clear. But if individuals are entitled to ownership in such measure as may be pur- chased from the thriftily saved surplus of their own earnings, it is evident that values so secured will by so much be in addition to, and distinct from, property controlled and administered by the state. By so much, private property, while it may be taxed for state pur- poses, will not be directly under state administration. It is thus clear that there will be a certain margin of property, the proceeds of which will not be administered by the state for the common good. Now, let us suppose that the wealth, public and private, of the United States amounts to $140,000,000,000. This is probably an outside estimate. We have ninety- five millions of inhabitants. If the entire property of the nation were distributed equally, there would be for each individual a value of something less than $1,475. Differ- ently stated, if the government were administrator, it would have for taking care of every man, woman, and SOCIALISM 163 child, a capital approaching $1,475 P^ T person. On the supposition that all this capital had an earning capacity of five per cent, the income that could be allotted for each person would be less than $74 per year. This certainly would not mean wealth for the individual. But, as a matter of fact, a vast proportion of this wealth could not be made to yield any direct income, so that there would be available far less than $74 per capita. Evidently, the citizenship of the socialistic state could neither be made up of private capitalists nor idlers. There would not be available wealth to permit a citizenship of capitalists. The limitation of capital would compel a nation of laborers. Only labor could produce the necessities of life for a people so placed. I understand clearly that it inheres in the socialistic philosophy that all able-bodied citizens shall be pro- ducers laborers. To the question, "What will you do with the work-shy and the lazy?" the answer of the plain Socialist was, "Shoot them." Socialism in this respect agrees with the precepts of the New Testament, "If a man will not work, neither let him eat." But on the theory of all wealth-producing agencies being administered by the nation for the common good, one wonders whether the abundant leisure which socialistic writers promise to labor amounts to anything more than a delusive dream. Under existing conditions, there is a vast amount of capital so invested as to be susceptible neither of division nor income for the common good. A multitude of private and costly homes could be cited as illustrative of this truth. Indeed, under the present order, an order which 164 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE has come through a long process of evolution, very many of the products of invested capital do not at all lend themselves to the socialistic state. If popular suffrage should overwhelmingly place the national government in the hands of Socialists, not much imagination is required to foresee that to adjust existing conditions to the socialistic ideal would prove for the socialistic statesman a most bewildering and chaotic task. So- cialism, in the light of its most perfected theoretical development, is, as applied to the state, an untried theory. It is perfectly safe to assume that Socialism has thus far furnished no rational or conclusive demon- stration of its fitness as a supreme modus for the state. If wealth-producing factors are to be under state direction, it is evident that labor must also be under the same direction. This must necessitate the dis- tribution of labor also as a matter of state control. Labor must be distributed to the points where required work can best be done. It is not easy under such a theory to escape the suggestion of at least a quasi-military direction which shall practically assign to whole armies of men not only location of both their work and hours, but as well the very kind of work which they shall be permitted to do. It seems self-evident that under such a system, no more than under existing conditions, could labor escape the domination of the boss. Work, espe- cially the kind of work which would be required for the collective interests of the state, would not be spon- taneously performed. It would have to be done under the direction of authority and leadership. Such work might be under the supervision of duly SOCIALISM 165 appointed commissions. But under whatever method, it would be tantamount to the same old regime of director and directed, of master and servant, of overseer and toiler. There is inevitable in the situation a grim suggestion of the unescapable thralldom of labor under some kind of mastership. The socialistic visionaries are not sufficiently reck- oning with the facts of human nature. The most plausible elaborations of Socialism more than suggest that the same kind of rivalries, dissensions, and dis- contents will continue to exist which under the present social and industrial structures work disorder and dis- aster. The practical inauguration of Socialism would not only work sore disillusion to its promoters, but it would bring perilous, if not incurable, chaos to the normal order of society. It may be admitted that many departments of purely public service might be successfully administered under socialistic ideals. The postal systems, railroads, telegraph and telephone service, water, gas, and electric supplies, police service, the common highways, and very many other agencies which are organized purely in the interests of public needs these might all conceivably be managed under some system of governmental commissions. But from a high social and moral standpoint, the finest and most valuable possessions for many lives are of a character which can neither be secured nor regulated by any public supervision. The selection of a wife, the choice of one's calling, the encouragement and development of art, poetry, the identification and direction in the young for effectiveness 166 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE in literature, science, and invention, the assurance of the adequate creation and endowment of institutions for research and the advancement of knowledge all this, and vastly more, the very factors which give embel- lishment and value to civilization itself, might just as well be left with a police system, as to the regulation of a public commission under a socialistic state. Per- sonal liberty so exercised as not to interfere with the common rights of others, should be treated as a thing of inalienable and invincible right. The very genius of the socialistic state is at many vital points not only repressive of individual liberty, but it indicates no scope or opportunity for the develop- ment of the exceptional individuality. The development of exceptional personalities calls for exceptional con- ditions. The guarantee of such conditions nowhere appears in the socialistic program. The vision of So- cialism itself does not have its genesis in views which have intelligently or sympathetically embraced the highest refinements of civilization. The promoters of Socialism have been largely absorbed in trying to invent a system which will yield to all classes, irrespective of social or intellectual rank, abundant bread, comfortable shelter, and a generous leisure. The importance of these aims should not be underestimated. But they only partially, and meagerly, represent life's values. Man is not to live by bread alone. Nor does his life consist in the abundance of material possessions. Life is something more than meat, more than raiment. The prophets of Socialism who are promising a ma- terial paradise for the world's toilers seem of limited SOCIALISM 167 vision. They have no seerlike grasp upon, they give no sufficient emphasis to, either the attainments, the possibilities of, or the provisional needs for, the cultural life of humanity. Their scheme, measured at its largest and interpreted at its best, falls woefully short of pro- viding adequate nurture for the social, intellectual, artistic, and moral wants of human society. It is not necessary to charge other than entire good faith to the prophets of Socialism as they make their optimistic pledges to the world. But the possibility of their making good these pledges is to be judged in the light of general experience, and on the observed principles of human conduct. The promises may be uttered with all the emphasis of sincerity, but, tested by the world's larger needs, they are likely to prove as elusive as the voice of a siren. Private wealth, and in generous amounts, will be requisite to initiate and to endow the needed agencies of human culture. Legislative committees, senates and congresses are proverbially perfunctory and tardy in authorizing grants for the public benefit. Their most commendable benefactions are usually those of com- promise, shaped by concessions made in order to secure a majority support to the authorizing measure. The private owner, or a combination of private owners like- minded, having clear vision and philanthropic purposes, will always be needed to pioneer the way for, and to lay the foundations of, such cultural institutions as will ever be demanded by the world's growing ideals. To depend upon legislative commissions to take the initiative in providing for such institutions would be 168 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE like tying the world's advancement to the wheelless and dragging chariots of the Egyptians. This is not to declare either the desirability or the legitimacy of inordinate private fortunes. There is something in- herently wrong in an industrial condition which will permit one man on the avenue to be the possessor of $400,000,000, while a million men, within a few miles of his palatial residence, are in daily struggle for bread to feed their hunger. Let there by all means be a system of taxation, drastic if needs be, which shall make it forever hereafter impos- sible for any person to amass so large a private fortune. But between this condition, on the one hand, and the de- mands of Socialism upon the other, there would be little to choose. It is not easy to find terms by which fittingly to characterize the evils of monopolistic and selfish wealth. It is also true that the socialistic philosophy has not yet furnished demonstration of its ability to meet more than the merest segment of human needs. Essential inequity inheres fundamentally in the social- istic scheme. Socialism is so absorbed in looking after the needs of the under-man, its entire interest is so confined to this man, that thus far it has theoretically failed to suggest due provision for those who are not under-men. It fails in promise of due incentive for action, or suitable reward for achievement, for those who under the present order of society and industry are proving themselves exceptional benefactors. Per- sons have lived, and others will live, who at large sac- rifice of ordinary comforts have wrought out inventions which have proved of inestimable value to entire civiliza- SOCIALISM 169 tions. Here is a man who in personal poverty and with incredible toil makes a scientific discovery by which the knowledge of mankind is greatly enriched. Copernicus, Newton, and Darwin, in a hand-to-hand struggle with nature's mysteries, gave to the world a new learning. The modern sciences, sciences which are dissipating ignorance, destroying superstition, flooding nature's dark places with light, giving to man a vast new knowledge of himself, yielding for the exploration of human thought a new universe of ever-growing wonders all these are the creations largely of lone toilers in cloister, laboratory, or in some open field of nature. What incentive does Socialism thus far offer for such high pursuits? What commensurate rewards is it pre- pared to bestow upon men of exceptional brain and genius, men without whom, as all history bears testi- mony, the race will make no material, intellectual, or moral progress. And if some enthusiastic socialistic writer should pledge most ample rewards for such workers, what hostages can he furnish in assuring the fulfillment of his pledge? Let Socialism with its materialistic ideals prevail, and the very inventive and inspirational men, men who are the real initiators in all progress, would be under the handicap of an unsympathetic and obstructive regime. But aside from consideration of exceptional and con- structive talent, the socialistic philosophy does not give fair encouragement to the virtues of ordinary thrift. Here are two laborers of equal opportunity, and in gen- eral with equal demands upon their abilities. The i7o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE one is industrious, temperate, frugal. He practices the creed of plain living and high thinking. He is con- scientious in discharge of his daily duties, reads good books, makes for himself a bank account, and earns a position of respect and influence among men. The other man is a free liver. He is a spendthrift, reckless of his personal reputation and influence. He is a patron of the saloon, and the higher interests of his own family are sacrificed to his vicious courses of living. Now, Socialism, as a governmental scheme, treats both these men alike. They are to have equal opportunities and equal rewards. Socialism as a theory is not adjustive to the social and moral deserts or ill deserts of individuals. Its very basic and central philosophy precludes it from dealing with society on the plane of moral values. But to put two men of diverse habits, as indicated, on the plane of equality is a moral absurdity. The one de- serves well of society and is clearly entitled to the benefits of his material thrift. The other has forfeited the respect of his fellowmen, and, if he is a material bankrupt, for this condition he has no one to blame but himself. Sane moral reason can by no possibility put these men. on a par. They are wide apart, both in their personal characters and merits. Socialism at best is but theoretical. It has no fixed thought-status. Its boldest position has time and again been driven into retreat under critical fire. Mr. H. G. Wells, in The Great State, a book which gives varied elaboration of the socialistic ideals, says, frankly: The final form which Socialism may take cannot as yet be set down. Its problems have not yet been clearly stated. The adjustments which SOCIALISM 171 are required cannot be foreseen. Its economics demand a reconsidera- tion. The difficulties of its administration and government, and especially the terrifying number of its army of officials, are riddles without answer from any quarter. All that can be said is that the goal is a state where every one shall be well fed, well housed, well played, and as happy as men can be made who must face the unescapable sternness of life. Mr. Hillquit in one of his latest interviews says: There is nothing sacred in the writings even of the founders of the modern Socialist philosophy. Some of the economic doctrines of Ferdinand Lassalle, and many cardinal planks of his practical program, have been unable to withstand the test of experience and criticism, and have been discarded by the Socialist movement. Some of the expressed views of Marx and Engels have been modified by their Socialist followers, and generally the Socialist movement is constantly engaged in revising its creed as well as its tactics. Socialism is a modern, progressive movement engaged in practical, everyday struggles, and it cannot escape the in- fluence of changing social conditions or growing economic knowledge. The International Socialist Movement is still Marxian, because the fun- damental social and economic doctrines of Karl Marx, his collaborators and disciples, still hold good in the eyes of the vast majority of Socialists; but in the details of its methods and modes of action the Socialist move- ment to-day is quite different from what it was in the days of Marx. Socialism proposes a radical change of the world's industrial order, a change which will most drastically affect all the social conditions of existing civilizations. The end it seeks in this stupendous program is to elevate all the poor to a plane of plenteous living. It proposes a task in itself of immeasurable difficulty, yet frankly acknowledging that it does not clearly see the methods by which it is to be done, much less does it have any definite forecast of the momentous consequences of weal or disaster which must ensue upon this world-change. The magnitude of the proposition is equaled only by its audacity. It is like inviting the human family to embark on an untried ship, upon an uncharted sea. Upon the quarter-deck there is no experienced admiral, i;2 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE and beyond the stormy outlook there is no definite haven of safety, no assured lands of plenty and peace. From a Christian viewpoint, the final word to be said about Socialism is that it is materialistic in its philosophy. It is fatally lacking in the incentive and transforming power of high moral and spiritual ideals. It must be admitted that in the physical betterments which it proposes for society there is great theoretical allurement. It were, indeed, a consummation devoutly to be wished, if from the common bounty every table could be supplied with wholesome food, and to all chil- dren could be offered warm clothing and a high nurture of the schools. But in proposing all this Socialism has been absolutely blind to the imperative needs of the moral and spiritual in men, needs which if left unmet will leave civilization in the condition of the old Roman world as described by Arnold: On that hard pagan world disgust And secret loathing fell; Deep weariness and sated lust Made human life a hell. Ramsey Macdonald says: "Socialism has no more to do with a man's religion than it has to do with the color of his hair. Socialism deals with secular things, not with ultimate beliefs." Keir Hardie, in his Serfdom to Socialism, says: "It cannot be too emphatically stated that Socialism takes no more cognizance of the religious opinions of its adherents than does either Liberalism or Conservatism." Mr. Hillquit in his famous debate with Professor John A. Ryan on "Socialism: A Promise or a Menace?" SOCIALISM 173 says: "Socialism, on the one hand, demands the com- plete separation of state and church, and, on the other, it stands for absolute religious liberty. These two fundamental principles determine the attitude which the Socialist state must take on religion and worship. It is safe to predict that a Socialist administration will confer no special rights, privileges, or exemptions on the Church, nor will it give it official sanction or recog- nition. On the other hand, it will not interfere in the slightest degree with its existence, teachings, and prac- tices." This, while ostensibly plausible, is in itself a betrayal of an utterly agnostic, and either an unfriendly or a blind, attitude on the part of Socialism toward the fundamental spiritual character and needs of human nature. If man, as the sane world has quite universally be- lieved, is primarily a spiritual being, and as such is a citizen of a moral order of the universe divinely ordained, then, a state "which will confer no special rights, priv- ileges, or exemptions on the Church" (religion, worship), "nor will give it official sanction or recognition" such a state, from a Christian standpoint, would stand as a monstrosity in civilization. A civilization which would fail in recognition of duty to provide for the all-around education and culture of the moral life of its people would be a civilization self-arrayed against the moral order of the universe. As an interesting symptom of the trend of socialistic philosophy, it is suggestive that Mr. William English Walling, himself a literary authority on the subject, has just published a book in which he deals with the i 7 4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ethical aspects of Socialism. He exalts Socialism to the rank of the exclusive religion. And this is really what multitudes of the less thoughtful subjects of the movement are doing. Mr. Walling's socialistic pre- dictions call for the final disappearance of the individual family home, a communistic home being substituted in its place. With the disappearing of the home will go the old relation of the sexes, and the defenses of the old morality. He says, "The overwhelming majority of Socialists in all countries where Socialism has become an important factor in society" believe "that all we know by the name of religion is likely to disappear with- out any violent attack." A man in Mr. Hillquit's position may naturally shrink from publicly conceding that Socialism as a movement is infiltrated through and through with an animus hostile to Christianity. But the fact is too much in the open. It cannot be disguised. The dominating minds of Socialism are overwhelmingly anti-Christian. And, as Professor Ryan sanely suggests, "What is of serious consequence is the fact that the Socialist movement of to-day is an active and far-reaching influence for the spread of irreligion among large sections of the popula- tion in many countries." The above testimony, I judge, is quite representative of the general attitude of the socialistic cult toward religious and spiritual questions. As a creed Socialism lays much stress upon conditions of life which shall be free from physical hardships. In this creed animal comfort is a sine qua non. It may be questioned whether this very view is not a heresy of the first rank. God SOCIALISM 175 has nowhere indicated that physical ease has any very important place in his scheme of moral development for the race. Labor is God's appointed mint from which alone can be coined the highest attainments of char- acter, the noblest achievements of service. Toil of both hand and brain is a necessity to the best development of the individual and to the highest welfare of society. Labor, so far from being a curse, is well-nigh God's one condition, and will always remain so, to the highest reach of soul. Masterful faculty, faculty which shall sway wide forces, must develop the thews of victory in surmounting obstacles and capturing achievements on toilsome pathways. All great, useful and lasting struc- tures of society represent toil the combined energies of capital, of brain, and of brawn. The builders of great philosophies, and of great faiths, are men who have not primarily concerned themselves much about physical ease, but, rather, men who have studied to secure for themselves power for greater toil. No philosophy can change the essential nature of things. The constitution of the world and the conditions of human society are such as to require a working race. In the world's work there will always be grades of needed work, some of which will not be in themselves as congenial as other grades. It is not easy to see how some men are to escape doing some work which does not itself appeal to highest taste. The city needs scav- engers as surely as it needs magistrates. The ashes and garbage of homes must be disposed of, and the sewers cared for. The most ideal socialistic com- munity must, in these respects, be much as a fine ocean i 7 6 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE steamship. However elegant the people, apartments, and furnishings above deck, the thing cannot be navigated except at the expense of coal stokers who, far down below, and stripped to their waists, work in an atmos- phere of stifling heat and grime. And how much will Socialism.be able to do to make ideal or easy the life of society's coal stokers? Socialism is yet far from the elaboration of adjust- ments which will inevitably be required from essential inequalities in human ability. God's endowments of men range all the way from genius down to the most ordinary of one-talented men. These varying grades by a fundamental law of nature, a law which acts of legis- lation will have little power to modify, must inevitably in the world's work find spheres for which their abilities specially ordain them. The limitation of Socialism is that it deals in mere externals. Its ideals are almost entirely materialistic. It assumes that if you surround men with the best ma- terial environment, you thereby secure to them the highest welfare and happiness. Now, all this may be immeasurably far from the truth. It is not the touch of outward environment, however important this may be, but motives dominating the soul which give highest value to character. Some men in spite of poor environ- ment conduct themselves in a spirit so wise, temperate, and virtuous, that they are happy and noble even in comparative poverty. Others, in command of all ma- terial good, are so slaves of excess as to make themselves objects of physical and moral loathing. Wealth, in multitudes of cases, has ministered only SOCIALISM 177 to the bane and destruction of its possessors. In this wealthiest of countries, we are tragically reminded that wealth alone is no guarantee for nobility of manhood, that it gives no surety of the inviolable character of the marriage altar, nor of domestic purity and happi- ness within its palaces. Wealth but too often panders to the perversion and debasement of all that is noblest in human ideals. Neither Socialism, nor any other human system, can secure anything like equal happiness to men of antipodal habits of action and character. One of the worst arraign- ments to be made against Socialism is that by its very premises it robs genius of incentive, and promises an unearned contentment to the aimless and slothful. Socialism, as Christianity, makes its appeal to those who toil. But Socialism is not a religion. It is, and can be, no substitute for the gospel of Him who said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." PART FOURTH FACTORS PROPHETIC 179 CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. MAT- THEW 13. 33. In the reign of Decius, so runs the legend, seven youths in Ephesus who had confessed their Christian faith in the persecution, but after- ward escaped their persecutors, fell asleep in a cave in which they took refuge. When they awoke again, the next morning as they supposed they sent one of their number to the town to fetch food, and he was greatly astounded to find there everything completely changed. Heathenism had disappeared, the idol statues and temples were gone, in their places were splendid churches; and over the city gates, on the houses, and above the churches, everywhere shone victorious that cross, for whose sake they had, as they thought, been persecuted but yesterday. They had slept two hundred years in the cave. DR. GERHARD UHLHORN. The kingdom is a growth, both in our understanding of it and in its realization. Our Lord spoke of it as a leaven, which was gradually to leaven the lump. Again, he described it as a seed, which should grow up, first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear. And he even spoke of our knowledge of it as something to be slowly gained under the tuition of the Holy Spirit, whom he would send to guide his disciples into the truth. He brought the leaven, he planted the seed, he spoke the word; but the evolution and the understanding were com- mitted to the ages. DR. BORDEN PARKER BOWNE. 182 CHAPTER X CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE THE Christian Church is not to be judged narrowly. Historically, as measured both by its vitality and fruit- fulness, it is the greatest institution known to man. Originating in the Orient, it is substantially Western in its development. Indeed, it may be measuredly said, it is largely the creator of the world's most enlight- ened and advanced civilizations. It is older by cen- turies than any existing government in the Western world. Born in a pagan environment, and under hostile skies, born under conditions which, humanly considered, would seem to preclude the possibility of its continued life, it has survived. When Christ was born Rome was called the "Eternal." Her scepter swayed the world from the forests of Lebanon to the Isles of Briton. But the dust of more than a millennium of years has gathered upon the ruins of Rome, and in all Europe there is hardly a vestige of a civilization that was in existence when Christ came. The Christian Church has not only survived, but in one form or another it sways the life and thought of all Europe as no other force. America was unknown to the world until fifteen centuries after the birth of Christ. To-day America, North and South, is the seat of great empires, of world-civilizations; but the most pervasive and dominant institution in all its vast 183 1 84 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE territory, and among its one hundred and fifty million of people, is, in one form or another, the Christian Church. The Church is not only the oldest institution in both Europe and America, but in empire and republic alike it is the most dominating force in all Western civilization. That an institution originating in apparent weakness, initially commanding but a few uninfluential supporters, beginning its mission in a remote and despised province of civilization, and a little later drawing to itself the sporadic and organized opposition of the most powerful and militant paganism of the world that such an in- stitution should survive at all might well be a matter of much inquiry, and not a little wonder. The great historian of the Decline and Fall has devoted two chap- ters of his monumental work to this very question. These chapters have come to be considered among the weakest, the most sophistical, and the least creditable in a work which, on the whole, is justly accredited as one of the supreme products of literature. To-day the Christian Church represents the greatest census of history. Its enrollment includes more than five hundred and seventy million of the human race. The Church, considered alone in the light of its origin, its persistence, and its growth, is a most remarkable phenomenon. But there are many features that add to the wonder of the persistence and flourishing life of the Church. Its pristine ideals have been obscured by the interblending of pagan corruptions, its lofty doctrines have been perverted by false interpretations, its membership has been invaded, and in some sections and times, inundated and overwhelmed by unregenerate hordes. Its unity CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 185 has been seemingly hopelessly rent asunder by the cleavage of doctrinal controversies. From its central life there have been thrown off innumerable and rival sects. History has witnessed no more virulent hatreds, no more violent conflicts, than have been awakened in the Church when sect has warred against sect. No wars have been more stubborn or cruel than the wars of religion. The Church, while always challenging to itself the antagonisms of the world, has been more menaced by internal dissensions, by the evil lives of its professed adherents, by the false teachings of its accredited leaders, by the priestly prostitution of its high sanctities, by the ignorance and superstition which have flourished at her own altars, than by all outward foes combined. But still, the Church has continued to live and has waxed strong. From the days of Celsus to the days of Robert Ingersoll there has been an unbroken succession of hos- tile critics, who have in most spectacular manner an- nounced the near and utter destruction of the Church. These men have assumed to write the very epitaph of Christianity itself. But all of them, like meteors flashing in the night, have disappeared, and most of them are forgotten. But the Church has moved irresistibly, majestically forward, witnessing to the ages that they who take up arms against her cannot prosper, and they who witness against her are false prophets. The secret of the quenchless and abounding vitality of the Church is the divine life resident within her. The Church on its human side is immeasurably far from perfect. In vast majorities it is made up of men, women, 186 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE and children, greatly wanting in knowledge, with im- perfect ideals, multitudes of them quite primally human, their native thought little cultivated, their natural impulses little restrained and yet in them all there is a profound consciousness of need, need social, moral, spiritual, to which the Church has ministered and does minister as not all other agencies. In the course of its history the Church as a whole has been touched and influenced by many types of philosophy, types most of which are now obsolete. But in all its history the Church has clung to, and believed in, Jesus Christ as its Sovereign, its supreme Teacher, its Exemplar, its inspiring and sustaining Life. And Jesus Christ as its Sovereign, its inspiring and vital strength, has proven more powerful for the Church than all combinations of evil against it; has preserved the Church in irresistible vitality in spite of all the ignorance, superstition, weakness, and dissensions which have inhered in its membership. Of all human beliefs none have been more widespread or unyielding than the belief on the part of the Christian world that Jesus Christ is a living and divine Saviour of those who trust in him. A belief well-nigh as universal as the Church itself is that Christ holds a living fellowship with men who seek to obey him, and that he attests the reproduction of himself in the lives of those who love him. The invincible thing which keeps the Church always and mightily alive is the abiding conviction that Christ dwells experimentally in the hearts of his people. While outwardly nothing might seem more fixed and CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 187 incurable than the cleavage between the Roman and the Protestant Churches, yet in their mutual relation to Jesus Christ there is revealed a real unity that is far deeper and more vital than any divisions which separate them. The testimony of Catholic and Protes- tant saints alike as to their fellowship with Jesus is just the same. Their testimony is keyed to the same note of experience; their songs of Christian gratitude are interchangeable, and they blend in perfect harmony. The Church in this respect cannot be placed on a parity with any national life, nor with any philosophy or system of law or culture. The Church as represented by the body of believers is distinctively insouled and vitalized by an indwelling divinity. This is the real reason why it triumphantly survives tests and ordeals before which any merely human institution would go down in collapse. Any attempt to account for the vitality of the Church would be inadequate which did not reckon with certain great facts and doctrines which it has been a distinctive function of the Church to emphasize. The Church as a whole has never uttered itself equivocally as to the character of sin. Sin is a violation of moral law, a departure from rectitude, a thing in essential antagonism to righteousness, a crime against the holiness and love of God. It is something so grave in itself as to jeopardize the soul's relation to God, something the consequences of which its victim cannot escape without the inter- vention of divine love and power. This teaching, be- hind which the Church has stood with great unanimity, a teaching which has had its largest confirmation in the universal moral sense of mankind, has been no small factor in its world-wide and age-long influence. The Church has persistently and universally taught the priceless value of the human soul. This teaching is central to the very logic of the Christian faith. God is the Father of the human spirit. It must then follow, even though it be in some marvelous and indefinable sense, that man as God's offspring is also potentially divine. There can be no sense in which man is God's son which does not call for an exalted view of human nature. Man, as we often see him, may seem depraved, perverted, hopeless. But if there is any recuperative potency in the individual, if God has any interest in his fallen child, if his love will prompt to any ingenuity of effort to lift up and transform those whom ignorance and sin have cast down, then, we can set no bounds to the glorious possibilities of any soul however appar- ently worthless. Coupled with the potential worth of every human soul is the Christian conception of im- mortality. Given this conception, and God himself is the only conceivable limit of the soul's possibilities of growth. To be a son of God, and to be a deathless heir of eternity, suggest a destiny in comparison with which all earthly values shrink into insignificance. Yet the Church throughout its history has steadily and clearly announced this great teaching. It is a teaching worthy to challenge the supreme attention of mankind. The Church has always stood as the mouthpiece of God's revelation to the world. It has been the supreme and unsubstituted expounder of God's will concerning man, the interpreter of man's relations and possibilities CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 189 in God's plans. This is a sublime function which in all history has never been so undertaken by any agency as by the Church. It is a function so stupendous, so large in assumption, as, without direct ordination from heaven, to be regarded a thing of infinite impertinence, an infamous audacity. It is due to emphasize the fact that in the discharge of this function the Church has always claimed the presence in its own life of a divine inspiration and guid- ance. But in discharge of this supreme mission it has never faltered, its spirit has never been touched with a sense of despair. Sublimely conscious of its heaven- given credentials, it has gone steadily forward preaching the gospel of its Founder to all men, urging upon all alike the uncompromising claims of God's will, always buoyant in the confidence that in its message is the charter of a divine redemption for all mankind. Thus it is easy to see that in the very foundations of the Church itself there are some distinctive factors adapted to give it a place of tremendous and transcendent in- fluence in the world of human thought. No review of the Church, however brief, should fail to note its transforming influence upon the institutions of society. We have noted the alienation toward the Church which unfortunately characterizes too widely the present-day labor world. But labor in all its his- tory has never had a better friend than the Church of Christ. When Christianity took its origin the laboring man was among the most despised and friendless of men. This was the spirit of the pagan world. Toil in any form was a work for slaves. Cicero said: "All who live 1 9 o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE by mercenary labor do a degrading business. No noble sentiment can come from a workshop." Seneca, Rome's greatest philosopher, said: "The invention of the arts belongs to the vilest slaves. Wisdom dwells in loftier regions; she soils not her hands with labor." In a world in which the toiler was universally despised, Christ began his work by surrounding himself with men of humble callings. Paul, greatest of the apostles, supported himself by the labor of his hands. From the first, Christianity put a dignity upon labor. It even received the slave into its fellowship and treated him as a brother beloved. Clement, in characterizing the Christian, said: "Among us, some are fishers, others artisans, others husbandmen. We are never idle." In the early Church not the rights of labor, but the duty of labor was emphasized. And the new moral citizen- ship which Christianity thus brought to the laborer, the new ideals and incitements which thus came to his life, resulted in a general prosperity among Chris- tians which early drew to itself the attention of the Roman world. Christianity began and continued its mission by enfranchising the laboring classes and giving them all the privileges of its citizenship. The Church, in its true spirit, has always been the open friend of poor and toiling men. One of the sublimest triumphs of its spirit and teaching is the obliteration of human slavery from all Christian civiliza- tions. And if it be really true to-day that there is any widespread alienation of labor from the Christian Church, this in itself should awaken on the part of the Church anxious inquiry as concerning its own spirit. Nothing CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 191 can be truer than that the great Founder and Exemplar of the Church was in the closest sympathy with, and was most conspicuously the friend of, those who labor and are heavy-laden. The ennobling influence of Christianity upon the character and status of woman is a theme which has been much but most worthily dwelt upon. In antiquity, especially in the Greek and Roman worlds, woman was universally treated as man's inferior. The very status of inferiority thus assigned to her made impossible, even in these great and cultured civilizations, the creation of an ideal moral society or the most perfect standard of family life. It is only with difficulty that we can reproduce to our thought the nameless immorality prevalent in the Roman empire at the time of and after the advent of Christ. Woman, as measured by our present Christian ideals, was well-nigh universally degraded. She was practically the vassal of man, the instrument of his caprice, the slave of his pleasure. One of the first in- fluences of Christianity was to give an exalted place to womanhood. The divine Saviour of men was born of a woman. A pure and noble womanhood is beau- tifully exemplified in some of Christ's personal friend- ships as pictured in the Gospels. From the very begin- ning woman was treated as man's peer in the citizenship of the Kingdom. In Christ there was neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. Men and women are "heirs together of the grace of life." Christ put the divine seal upon the sacredness of the family life by enjoining a lifelong marriage of one man with one i 9 2 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE woman. Only in a relation thus established and limited could there be guaranteed to children born into the home the rights of parental care, nurture, and training essential to their future. From its earliest organization the Church not only insisted upon the equality of woman, but it put around her life in all relations the highest sanctities of personal purity and virtue. Wherever the Church has carried a dominant influence there womanhood has been honored, the definition of her rights has been widened, and the sphere of her in- fluence and privilege in the family, in the social and educational world has been enlarged. The logic of this position of the Church in relation to woman has issued in the widest results. If woman is to be the peer and companion of man, then she should be the full sharer with him in the social, educational, moral, and spiritual opportunities of life. If she is to bear, as the Christian home calls for, a chief task in the mental, moral, and spiritual nurture of childhood, then she is entitled for her high function as mother and teacher to all the personal culture which the best conditions can furnish. These are the premises from which have arisen the high place accorded to woman in the activ- ities of the Church itself, the costly provision for her education in common with her brothers at public expense, her coeducational status in the great universities, and the splendid list of colleges devoted exclusively to fe- male education. Civilization, just in the measure in which its vision becomes Christian, recognizes increasingly both the fit- ness and the justice of endowing woman, ordained to CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 193 be the companion and peer of man, with every social, educational, and moral privilege which by right should be conferred upon her brothers. So true is all this that there is not a man who owes a debt to a cultured, Christian mother, there is not a woman who holds a high place of esteem in the social world, not one who because of the wealth of her mental attainments, or the beauty of her spiritual character, commands unusual influence, who is not placed under the bonds of grat- itude for an inheritance received from the Christian Church. The ameliorations which the Church has wrought in social conditions, the inspirations which it has furnished to human thought, form a long list of benefactions upon which I cannot here enlarge. Wealth, its dispositions, its uses, presents one of the greatest and most vexing questions to present-day thought. In the ancient world wealth was held by its possessor without sense of moral responsibility for its use. The spirit of paganism per- mitted a man to feel free in its selfish use. Christianity has always taught that wealth is a moral trust, that its holder is a steward held strictly responsible for the use he makes of even his money. The influence of this teaching may be somewhat measured by the costly charities, by hospitals, by homes for the aged and unfor- tunate, by asylums for the feeble-minded, by retreats for the blind, by orphanages, and by kindred benefac- tions, which stand numerously all along the pathway of Christian history. I shall have occasion elsewhere to note the marvelous spirit of benevolence which char- acterizes the modern world. Who is able intelligently i 9 4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE to deny that the teaching of the Christian Church is, and has been, more than any other cause the source of all this munificence? The Church has inspired radical reforms against the barbarism of prison management; has, by its hu- mane teaching and Red Cross nurses, mitigated the atrocities of war and the horrors of the battlefield; has done much to humanize the criminal codes, and to lessen the lists of inhuman punishments for minor mis- demeanors. It has taken a long time for the Christian spirit to eliminate the primitive barbarisms which have persisted even into Christian civilizations. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century there were more than two hundred offenses on the statute books of England punishable by death. Men and women were hanged for sheep-stealing, for forgery, for passing spurious coin. Yet at the same time men might buy and sell slaves and flog them to death without even breaking the law. Benjamin Kidd luminously and convincingly shows us that the steady trend of legislation of the entire Western civilizations for the last century has been in the direc- tion of humane ameliorations, of enlarged recognition of human rights, and for the betterment of general social and moral conditions. And no one than he will be more prompt to credit the influence of Christian teaching as an underlying cause of this humane trend in Western legislation. In touching upon these familiar claims on behalf of the Christian Church as having created many of the most valuable features of our modern civilization, CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 195 I am not unaware of the claim made by some that if Christianity had not existed, civilization would still have developed much of the same valuable qualities as now. There are those who go so far as to declare that Christianify has been a detriment rather than a benefit to the world's advancement. Such statements are far more easily made than proven. There is hardly a land to-day in which there has not entered some measure of Christian enlightenment. But one thing is certain, the more deeply we bury ourselves in climes and atmospheres purely heathen, the more conspicuously absent are the better qualities character- istic of Christian civilization. Science, education, and the sanitary city do not flourish in heathendom. On the other hand, degraded womanhood, neglected child- hood, despotic castes, abject slavery, gross superstitions, ignorance, poverty, and despair all combine to put a pall of habitual hopelessness upon the vision of heathen civilizations. In Christian communities there may be individuals just as superstitious, just as wicked and depraved, as any to be found in heathendom. But the lives of such in Christian communities always ap- pear in marked contrast to lives which Christianity has made beautiful. No so in heathendom. In the heathen world the common vision is monotonously darkened. There is in all the great human mass little to inspire hope, gladness, purity, or heroism. A pertinent question would seem to be, If a perfect civilization can be developed in the absence of Chris- tianity, why do not some fine specimens of such a civiliza- tion appear at the centers of the world's heathenism? 196 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE If it should be assumed that a high intellectual culture is a sufficient source of a superior civilization, then no better examples could be asked than are furnished in Greece and Rome. Grecian thought was in itself the most brilliant, Grecian art the most perfect, which the ages have furnished. But the moral perfections of Greece in its best age will bear no comparison to the better type of the Christian community. In Rome law, philosophy, oratory, literature, and art flourished in a phenomenal degree. But when Rome clothed herself in purple, and was the most lavish patron of art, her morals were namelessly corrupt, her faith most darkened, her ideals most depraved, the common lot most largely one of hopelessness and despair. Religiously, the most classic paganisms of the world have proven the most despairing failures. At the height of Roman culture, Seneca said, "The aim of all phil- osophy is to despise life." Suicide was the last con- solation of his philosophy. Paganism at its best has never been able to satisfy the deeper spiritual instincts of the human soul, the longing of the soul for God. The highest satisfactions that can come to the life of man have come most certainly, most fully, most abidingly, in the faith of Jesus Christ. It is false to history to declare that there can be a perfect civilization without Christianity. We have frankly admitted the weaknesses and lim- itations which have characterized the life of the historic Church. But the man, with all history as his teacher, in search for a new religion, has sought in vain for any improvement upon that Christianity which has been CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 197 taught by the Church. And those who now seek for institutions whose teachings furnish better ideals of character, or higher hopes for life, whose fellowships are more lofty, more pure, or more helpful than those furnished by the Christian Church, will continue to search in vain. Such institutions do not exist. It is in the irreversible logic of Christianity that such institu- tions will never appear. In sober and measured utterance it may be declared that the Christian Church has been the inspirer and creator of the finest educational ideals, the most humane movements and institutions, the most advanced ethical legislation, which are the assured possessions of modern civilization. All this may be said without the slightest detraction from the great and continuous contributions of Roman and Greek literature and art, or from the splendid deposit of Arabic science, to the enrichment of civilization. It would be both ungainful and fatuous to deny that civilization is the resultant of many forces. But in the most careful classification of contributing factors, it can hardly fail to appear that the best civiliza- tion which we know is more largely the product of Chris- tian ideals than of any other creative forces. It is to be admitted that the Church, while largely the creator of, has ceased to be at first hand the director of, many of the most valuable movements of the modern world. She has so far imbued the "state and private organizations with her benevolent and humane ideals, that these have taken up and multiplied her mission to humanity. In the spheres of education, of humane charities, in legislation, and in innumerable ways, help- i 9 8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ful ideals which first found embodiment in church life are now greatly amplified and reenforced by agencies outside of the organized Church. All these agencies, however fruitful their usefulness, may look back to the Church as their mother. The most beneficent institu- tions of our times are nearly all of them children of the Church, and together with her, are among the pro- motive forces of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 1 Indeed, the influences of Christianity have so permeated the intellectual and social atmospheres of the world, have so touched and shaped the processes of human thought and conduct, as to make it utterly impossible to assess its values to the present life of the world. As in a great and costly fabric, the golden threads of Christianity are richly interwoven into all the structure of modern civilization. And, so far from being a lessening force, the spirit of Christianity, like a leaven, is more and more working itself into and through the great body of world-thought. Making all due allowance, then, for the fact that the Church, as the ecclesiastical investiture of Chris- tianity, has been characterized by grievous faults, incon- sistencies, and weaknesses; that in these very times it is failing sadly to show itself the fit and adequate vehicle for giving expression to the mission of Chris- tianity to the world, yet I can have no doubt that the Church will remain indefinitely the foremost agency of inspiration, instruction, and propagation in the up- building of Christ's kingdom among men. 1 In this chapter I have in a few instances used the word "Church" as practically synon- ymous with the "Kingdom," because when so used the Church has stood as the chief expression of Kingdom development. CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 199 Life creates its own organisms, its own agencies of propagation. Christianity is life supreme. It will always voice itself more potently through the Church than by any other agency. Whatever the tendency of his- torical ecclesiasticism to harden itself into fixed forms, whatever the tendency of its doctrines to dogmatic fossilization, the inherent creative life of the Spirit will nevertheless so shape Christian thinking and method as to produce a type of church life flexible, adaptive, and effectively responsive to the Spirit's processes in the redemption of the world. But, whatever our confidence in the stability and perpetuity of the Church, it would be in the highest degree fatuous not to take into most serious reckoning the exceptionally critical and prodigiously difficult situa- tion which confronts the mission of the present-day Church. This situation is so real, so obvious, as to seem to some of its observers tantamount to nothing less than an arrest of Christianity itself. To this view no hospitality is to be given. But nevertheless the Church has come to face one of the gravest critical periods in its history. Its life-and-death conflict with early Roman persecutions did not furnish a severer test of its vitality and capacity than that which now confronts its life. If the Church is to prove itself equal to Christianizing the world, it will need to adapt itself as never before to what may be characterized as largely new and uni- versal age-conditions. i. Providence, in a marvelous way, has signalized this very day as one of the world-wide preparation 200 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE for the advent of the gospel to all nations. Is the Church, in equipment, in purpose, in zeal, ready to enter upon the supreme program which God is now thrusting upon its vision? 1 2. The conditions of the industrial and social world force upon the Church to-day for its solution some of the most fateful and difficult problems which have ever arisen in Christian history. The really alarming elements in the situation are, as I must believe, only beginning to take their rightful place in the consideration of Chris- tian thought. There are, for instance, in Christendom to-day three quite well-defined zones of social life. The distinctive term which may be applied to one is "cap- italism." As early as 1890 Mr. Charles B. Spahr, by careful processes, reached the conclusion that one per cent of the families of the United States control more than one half of the aggregate wealth of the country. If this estimate was correct then, it is probably not less true to-day. The same authority asserts that seven eighths of the families control only one eighth of the national wealth. These figures, however, do not best represent the real social stratification of our present- day life. Between the two extremes of capitalism and poverty, there is a wide middle zone. The people in this zone represent conditions of average comfort. Many of them own their homes. They command a fair living income. They provide their children with the con- ditions of a liberal education. This zone embraces nearly all the industrious and prosperous merchants, tradesmen, farmers, and professional classes. Its people 1 1 reserve another chapter for the discussion of this question. CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 201 largely represent intelligence, virtue, and wholesome qualities of character. In this class the Church has its greatest numerical and moral strength. This class as such has never broken with the Church. Its people are those upon whom the Church may most rely, and from which it may expect most for the reenforcement of its work. This class, on the whole, represents the best product of our civilization. Concerning the great capitalist, little need here be said except that he commands an inordinate fortune and wields a very great, and quite possibly dangerous, power. Measured from any Christian standpoint, it is a grave thing for a man to be a multimillionaire. But nevertheless the Church has an ethical message for this capitalist which without fear or favor it should urge upon him. It is not enough that he is benevolently disposed, that he is willing to do good with his surplus income. The question is, what is the real attitude of his heart toward God, toward humanity, toward his own paramount spiritual interests? How is he really discharging his own moral stewardship? One may be far removed from any grievance toward capital, he may recognize clearly both the legitimacy and necessity of capital for the larger interests of human society. But may there not still be room for the judgment that there is something unideal, something Christianly abnormal, in the overgrown private fortune? It is not enough that the owner ranks princely in philanthropy, that he endows universities, hospitals, benevolent foundations in a way that is at once most signal and most useful. There is an irreversible moral judgment abroad which 202 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE says that, even so, he is not justly balancing his books with the world. He may do all this, and yet experience nothing of the sacrifice of the cross. And, after all, back of all the processes by which his fortune is secured, back of all legal titles of ownership, there is, as weighed in the sensitive scale of the common judgment, a serious question as to the moral fitness of any one man monop- olizing wealth which runs inordinately beyond his per- sonal needs. Certainly, no man ever acquires such wealth by his own unaided exertion. He may have been able to sub- sidize many forces, but among these forces there was a productive power meriting little, if any, less recog- nition than his own. To build a given fortune requires the services of a thousand men. One man has the power to keep in his own hands the great bulk of the production, and we call him rich. Nine hundred and ninety-nine other men have received no equitable di- vision of the product, and the margin between them, their families, and poverty is always so narrow as to be a source of dread. The ethical teachings of the Old Testament are not far from making it clear that the offerings of one whose fortune has been gained at such expense are a mockery at the Lord's altars. Such a man is at least in the category of those of whom Christ said, "It is not easy for such to enter into the kingdom of heaven." There can be no doubt, I think, that in the ideal Christian state inordinate private fortunes will have no place. They cannot coexist with an ideal and fully developed Christian conscience. And so, one of the supreme problems of Christianity to-day is to CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 203 Christianize capitalism, is, in the spirit of the Hebrew prophets, to deal honestly, courageously, with the rich until they shall be made to feel that the one purpose to which they should dedicate their wealth is the build- ing up of God's kingdom in the earth. The tragic question of all, however, relates to the decapitalized classes. The three classes which I have named are socially quite apart from each other. But the class at present most hopelessly divorced from the Church is that of the wage-earning laborer. This sit- uation, viewed from the standpoint of Christ's own example and teaching, is in all respects abnormal and unfortunate. If in the gospel of Jesus Christ there is anything which ministers to human needs, that brings strength to weakness, comfort to the sorrowing, hope to the buffeted, then, of all classes, the poor have con- stant need of such a ministry. But for reasons which need not here be specialized there probably never was a time when the laboring and the heavy-laden, living at the very doors of the Church, were more separated from it than now. There never was a time when such separation would be so significant as now. The laboring world is organ- ized. It is learning to know the power, without alto- gether appreciating the necessary restraints, of organ- ization. It is militant in its spirit. It is discontented. It cherishes the belief that it is being defrauded from its fair share of the benefits of its own industry. It is lending itself bitterly to the view that capitalism is largely robbery. It is menacing and defiant. It pro- poses incessant warfare until what it conceives as its 204 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE own rights shall be conceded. It is under a cult especially its own. It is reading newspapers, magazines, and books created and published from its own ranks. The misfortune in this relation is that the literature on which it feeds and fortifies itself takes little account of spiritual ideals or of man's spiritual needs. Labor is systematically being educated away from the spiritual ideals of the Church. It is traducing itself into the belief that it has no need for the Church. Its gospel is materialistic, its hopes are of this world. Its vision is confined to an earthly paradise. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the gravity of the situation. Whole populous provinces of our civilization are migrating into a gross materialism and are educating their children away from Christian ideals. The chasm which is thus being created between the Church and the laboring world is one which is hardly yet begun to be measured, but it is implicit with consequences of immeasurable disaster both to the Church and to the future moral status of labor. The Church of the twentieth century will make no signal advance until it bridges this chasm and recaptures these alienated territories. In order to do this it will have to be itself fully awakened to the magnitude and peril of the situation. It will need to have a full appre- ciation and sympathetic understanding of all the problems and difficulties involved. It will need to discover for itself new and large adaptations for one of the supreme tasks of Christian history. It will need to enter upon this work from the very focus of highest spiritual inspira- tions inspirations which will beget at its heart high CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 205 hopes, a Christlike love of man, a quenchless zeal. Will the Church adapt itself for this supreme work? Will it gird and inspire itself for this superlative requirement? I believe it will. 3. The Church of the twentieth century must acquire far more perfectly than now the secret and power of a working unity. Happily, this is one of the great con- ceptions, which is working itself mightily into the con- victions of the present-day Church. Christians of the different denominations are awaking to the vision of the great and common tasks of Christianity. They are perceiving more than ever that the things which have separated them are not vital, and that the truths in which they agree are really the great truths of the Christian faith. And, more than ever, our common Christianity is coming to be inspired and unified in the overwhelming conception of what it means to Chris- tianize the world. To say nothing for the moment of Christianizing the entire human race the ultimate achievement for which the Church exists to enter the doors of opportunity and necessity now wide open for Christian advancement would require the united and harmonized effort of the entire Christian Church. I think of a mission field like that now existing in the Greater New York city. Let us confine our thought to the east side of Manhattan Island, though this is only typical of many other sections of the city which might almost equally serve the purpose. This whole section is now congested with populations which have come from the ends of the earth. It is a section which was once well colonized with Christian churches. But 206 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE with the incoming of foreign populations these churches have, one after another, retreated, until to-day the great thronging "East Side" is pretty much given over to alien peoples. But this field is one of the most im- portant, strategic, and difficult for Christian missionary work existing on the face of the earth. The question seems well asked, "If we cannot success- fully carry out a Christian missionary scheme in our own country, why should we be so careful to establish missions in pagan lands?" I would not lessen by a feather's weight our interests in foreign missions. Those interests need to be mightily reenforced. But I reassert the conviction that New York city presents intrinsically the most strategic and important mission field of the world. If the Church could establish great and effective evangelistic centers on the east side of New York, then, from this very ground would be raised up the most efficient foreign missionary agencies which the Church has yet known. But this is the field in which the Prot- estant denominations, working single-handed, have lost out. I do not underestimate I am far from a desire so to do the useful work now being done on this "East Side" by various single organizations. But measured by the kind of judgment which is required for success- ful business, it might deliberately be said that all that is now attempted is but a mere byplay conducted on the shores of an infinite need. All that is now being accom- plished hardly touches the edges of an indescribable mass of unchristianized populations. To recover this ground, and to Christianize the peoples, will require such a massing of Christian strength and CHRISTIANITY'S LEAVENING LIFE 207 movement as has never been known in history. It is a work for which no single denomination, nor all denom- inations together working separately, is equal. Success, of the kind needed and merited in this field, would re- quire vast sums of consecrated wealth, great unity and harmony of counsel, apostolic leadership, workers in sufficient number, who, in the spirit of their Master, would invade the last retreats in search of men apparently lost and hopeless. I have used the city to illustrate the need of federated Christian action. There are innumerable fields which call for this attitude on the part of the churches. Happily beyond expression, the Christian atmosphere is full of prophecy. The birth-throes of mighty moral move- ments are in the age. The Church will emerge to the needs of the day. Its inspired ingenuity will not only make it adaptive, but will arm it with adequate resources for the fulfillment of its divine mission. Christianity is a life, an inspiring divine force. There may be periods in its history when this life seems quies- cent, inactive; but as the gathering of pent-up waters, it will at some time break forth and assert its own resist- less might. Each new age takes on environment quite distinctly its own. In this environment new problems, new needs, develop. These problems and needs summon knowledge to the task of new solutions, to the invention of distinctive and adaptive methods of treatment. Noth- ing is more prophetically certain than that the Divine Spirit will quicken the vision of the Church, inspire it with purpose, and gird it with a strength equal to its momentous and difficult tasks. To the supreme needs 208 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE of the world and to all divine requirements the Church of the future will surely respond. Rejecting useless methods of thought, and casting off worn-out traditions, it will gird itself with knowledge as with light, and, new-panoplied in the life of the Spirit, it will go forth to the greatest achievements of its history. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 209 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. MATTHEW 28. 18-20. The record of the work done by the first missionaries in India reads like an Eastern romance. They created a prose literature for Bengal; they established the modern method of popular education; they founded the present Protestant Indian Church; they gave the first impulse to the native press; they set up the first steam engine in India; with its help they introduced the modern manufacture of paper on a large scale; in ten years they translated and printed the Bible, or parts thereof, in thirty-one languages. The main part of their funds they earned by their hands and heads. They built a college which still ranks among the most splendid educational edifices in India. SIR WILLIAM HUNTER. I believe the advancement of civilization, the extension of commerce, the increase of knowledge in arts, science, and literature, the promotion of civil and religious liberty, the development of countries rich in undis- covered mineral and vegetable wealth are all intimately identified with and, to a much larger extent than most people are aware of, dependent upon the work of the missionaries; and I hold that the missionary has done more to civilize and to benefit the heathen world than any or all other agencies ever employed. ALEXANDER McARTHUR, M.P. They are revolutionizing society. They are waking ancient peoples from the graves of the past. They are kindling a new passion for free- dom. They are breaking the bonds of ancient superstitions and con- servative traditions. They are breathing new life into multiplied millions of the human families. If there be a rebirth in China and the pangs of new life are being felt in India, and the dark places of Africa are being wrested from the dominion of cruelty and lust if, in a word, the thralldom of ignorance and wrong is being overturned in half the world, the com- manding figure behind the whole movement that is doing these things is the humble missionary. THE REV. W. F. OLDHAM. 2IO CHAPTER XI CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN addressing the National Convention of twenty- five hundred Methodist men at Indianapolis, Dr. Robert E. Speer predicted that, when the future student of his- tory shall look back upon our times to inquire as to what has really been the greatest movement of history, "he will select as the deepest and most characteristic movement of this time Christianity's readjustment of its mission and the reassertion by Christian men of their obligation to carry the sovereignty of the gospel over all the world and into all the life of men." Great moral movements, like the seas, mingle into each other. But, if we could clearly differentiate the Christian missionary movement of this age from all other movements, we would be forced to conclude that this movement, measured by its ideals, its scope, its achievements, its effect direct and collateral upon civ- ilization, its ever-enlarging plans and prophetic hopes, is the most sublime and morally fruitful movement in the present-day history of the world. Upon no feature of the Church did its divine Founder lay more stress than upon its missionary character. His last and de- cisive message to the Church bade it go into all the world and disciple all the nations. The relentless edict of persecution forced the primitive Church early into missionary activities. Persecution 211 212 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE hunted and scattered the early disciples into all the provinces of the Mediterranean. But in whatever territories these pursued disciples took refuge, they carried the ardent testimony of their Master's gospel. Christianity, by its own propulsions, spread rapidly from the shores of the Mediterranean, not only to north- ern Africa, but throughout the territories of Europe. It accompanied the earliest migrations to America, and established itself as the dominant religious faith of the New World. The term "Christendom" has long stood as the synonym of a large group of nations which together compose the world's most advanced and powerful civilizations. But in the great body of Christendom the distinctive con- ception of missions as now construed, like many other of the implicit and vital teachings of Christ, has come to late expression. In the days of his flesh, Christ's patience was evidently greatly tried by the lack of spiritual discernment so manifest in his disciples. Few facts can more greatly attest the blindness of the Church through long ages than its lack of vision of, its indiffer- ence to, its skepticism concerning, its duty to constitute itself a missionary evangel to all the world. Practically, while there are a few organizations com- paratively old, the foreign missionary conception is quite modern. While on the Continent and in England a few of the foreign boards were established in the later years of the eighteenth century, most of the effective organizations of to-day are less than a century old. The American Board was formed in 1810, the Baptist Board in 1814, the Methodist Episcopal Missionary CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 213 Society in 1819, the Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society in 1820, the United Presbyterian Board Mission- ary Society in 1859. The awakening of conviction from which has resulted the foreign missionary movement of Protestant Chris- tianity was effected in the face of great indifference, even of opposition. When, only a little more than a hundred years ago, William Carey arose in a Baptist Assembly to inquire if Christ's command to his apostles to go "into all the world and preach the gospel" did not apply to the present time, the president curtly replied: "Sit down, young man. When it pleases God to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help." 1 The attitude of the great "Honorable East India Company," practically wielding England's control df the Indian continent, is well known. WTien it was proposed to send missionaries to the East, this company officially made a rejoinder to the effect that "the sending out of missionaries into our Eastern possessions would be the maddest, most extravagant, most costly, most indefensible project which has ever been suggested by a moon-struck fanatic. Such a scheme is pernicious, imprudent, useless, harmful, dangerous, profitless, fan- tastic. It strikes against all reason and sound policy, it brings the peace and safety of our possessions into peril." It was not until 1813 that the English Parliament allowed missionaries to go to India. When the Church Missionary Society of London was organized there was not to be found a single English 1 For a convenient grouping of several of the historical incidents related in this chapter. I am indebted to an informing and brilliant article from the pen of Carl Crow, as published in The World's Work, in October, ion. 214 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE clergyman who was willing to go upon foreign mission work, and for sixteen years this Society did its work only through foreign helpers. "In 1796 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passed a resolution that 'to spread abroad the knowledge of the gospel among barbarous and heathen nations seems to be highly preposterous while there remains at home a single individual without the means of religious knowl- edge, to propagate it abroad would be improper and absurd.' " The American Board of Foreign Missions was organ- ized in 1810, really under the initial leadership of a few Andover Seminary students, namely, Samuel Mills, Gordon Hall, and James Richmond. But such then was the general opposition to the idea of missions that these spiritually awakened young men had to counsel together in stealth. They met for conversation and prayer upon the subject of missions in a lonely glen, but were greatly rejoiced to find that their hearts were drawn out in harmony upon the same subject. No phenomenon in history is more marked, nor prob- ably more fraught with significance, than the change which in the last century it might truly be said within the last twenty-five years has come into the thought of the Christian Church with reference to missions. The missionary enterprise is now a common enthusiasm of Protestantism. There are at present nearly fifty strongly organized societies or boards, the common purpose of which is, under the most efficient auspices at command, to establish evangelizing agencies in all heathen territory. As a policy both of comity and efficiency, CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 215 the fields to be occupied are so differentiated that these various organizations do not enter the same territory as rival forces. A general result is that mission sta- tions, like so many beacons of moral and spiritual light in the world's dark spaces, are already strategically planted here and there widely over pagan lands. Mis- sionary forces are increasingly colonizing the heathen world. Only a century ago the entire gifts of Protestantism for foreign missions did not exceed annually $200,000. In the last year England, the United States, and Canada gave more than $22,000,000; and in the same year the combined gifts of the world's Protestantism for this cause were not less than $33,000,000. In the entire heathen world the number of employed missionaries from Christian lands approximates about 21,500, to which are to be added 105,000 native workers. The direct fruitage of missionary efforts in the fields occupied is represented by more than 7,000,000 living native Christians. These figures are most significant. But they represent only the merest fraction of achieve- ments wrought. The eloquent words of Dr. W. F. Oldham, spoken of Methodist missions at the Indianapolis convention, would have truthful application if spoken of the entire missionary world. He said: This slim handful, met at first by misunderstanding and racial prejudice, by open opposition and stony indifference, has kept patiently, steadily at work. They have had but a brief half century. During that time, working from five thousand to ten thousand miles from home, contending with strange languages and stranger customs, debilitated by unfavor- able climates, harassed by disease, criticized abroad and till lately often sneered at at home, they have overcome initial difficulties, broken through the apathy of great masses of ignorance, have withstood the organized 216 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE opposition of aroused priesthoods and the militant frenzy of persecuting fanatics. In the face of mobs and riots, of revolution and wars, and above all, in spite of powerfully intrenched religions and hoary superstitions, they have inaugurated changes, they have altered civilizations, they have witnessed the reformation of peoples and the rebirth of nations; they have planted schools and school systems; they have built churches and established Christian homes and Christian worship. . . . Behold, what hath God wrought! The interest in missions shows no decline. It is, rather, that of a sustained and growing life. It is a movement fresh and vigorous in purpose, such as might have sprung from a youthful Christianity, a movement having in itself all the energy, hopefulness, and prophecy born of youthful enthusiasms. Christian missions are really but in their beginning. Their outlook is world- wide, their spirit world-conquering. In all their vocabu- lary there is no single suggestion of despair. Their task is as wide as humanity, but their confidence of success is absolute. If the term "enthusiasm" can be translated as God inworking in human purposes, then, no historic cause than that of Christian missions has ever drawn to itself a support more sublime. This cause has won for itself the approval of the world's most observant and intelligent thinkers. To speak slightingly or derisively of Christian missions to-day is to mark the person so speaking as both benighted and bigoted. A church member who does not believe in missions is pathetically out of harmony with the most enlightened thought of the age. Phillips Brooks, when traveling in India, wrote home: "Tell your friends who do not believe in foreign mis- sions (and I am sure there are a good many of such) that they do not know what they are talking about, CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 217 and that three weeks' sight of mission work in India would convert them wholly." Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, traveler and author, says: I am a convert to missions through seeing missions and the need for them. Some years ago I took no interest at all in the condition of the heathen; I had heard much ridicule cast upon Christian missions, and perhaps had imbibed some of the unhallowed spirit. But the mission- aries, by their life and character, and by the work they are doing, wherever I have seen them, have produced in my mind such a change and such an enthusiasm as I might almost express it in favor of Christian mis- sions that I cannot go anywhere without speaking about them and trying to influence others in their favor who may be as indifferent as I was. This kind of testimony could be indefinitely multi- plied. Christian missions stand recognized in all un- prejudiced and intelligent thought as occupying a foremost place among the creative forces of human progress and moral enlightenment. As to the current movement and spirit of missions, I have seen no clearer brief statement than one found in a single paragraph by Mr. Crow. He says: Every year the Christian army advances farther into the territory of the enemy and adds thousands to its ranks. Go into any market town in China, any city of India, into the jungles of Africa, into the frozen north, among the cannibals and lepers and barbarians, into the far-away places of the great heathen world, and there you are sure to find one of the officers of this great army, whose outposts are far in advance of those of commerce. But this is no motley band of adventurers intent on hum- bling the Moor, despoiling the Jew, and burning heathen villages to plant the cross over ashes and dead bodies. It is a carefully organized army of Christian civilization, made up of highly trained men and women, marshaled at strategic points, who, under brilliant generalship, are laying siege at the very strongholds of heathendom. Theirs is a combination of the dauntless spirit of the crusader and the deadly efficiency of modern system and method. The present-day missionary movement, studied from any standpoint, proves replete with informing interest. ai8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE It may not be overlooked that the very central main- spring of information, the insouling motive, of mis- sions is primarily and exclusively one of highest moral and spiritual service to mankind. The missionary mes- sage to the Church and to the world is one that calls for the most unselfish benevolence, for the largest con- secration of both gifts and service. While the success of missions in any field means a new market for the wares of the manufacturer and the merchant, the cause of missions is not a joint-stock corporation in any sense which primarily promises a return of cash dividends to its investors. It asks outright, from all who are able to bestow, free, large, and loving gifts. To those who have no appreciation of the moral uses of money the whole plan may seem both visionary and Utopian. But to all who have entered sympathetically into God's methods of helping the world the spirit of giving to missions finds its supreme illustration and enforcement at the cross where God's Son freely gave himself for the world's redemption. It is true that selfish business is making vastly larger investments for revenue purposes in mercantile and industrial enter- prises than the Christian Church is making for the promotion of its missions. But in its magnitude, in its moral significance, as an index of high faith in and devotion to a divine cause, and in unmeasured fruit- fulness of results, the Christian consecration of capital and cultured life to missions represents the sublimest altruism now known to the world. The moral values in human education of so large, enthusiastic, and con- certed giving of money, of so heroic devotion of individual CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 219 lives as that now represented in the support of Christian missions, are beyond estimate. Modern missions, considered as a business enterprise, furnish one of the most suggestive chapters of present- day life. A vitally important, though the least romantic side of missionary endeavor, is the raising of funds in the home Church for support of the work abroad. The education of the home Church is being conducted with increasing movement, thoroughness, and breadth, through publications, school training, and platform addresses. These and kindred agencies are awakening wide popular interest in the work of foreign missions. A great edu- cational program is now in process throughout Prot- estantism. An increasing liberality is rapidly developing. Financial plans are in vogue through which it is sought to reach every member in every Christian congregation. The aggregate annual gifts of the Churches now reach up into the many millions. But it would not be sur- prising if within the next ten years the present large giving would be increased tenfold. The missionary movement is commanding the serious attention of the cultured young men and women of the present generation. The Students' Volunteer Movement, made up of Christian students, as a single agency sent out into various fields up to December 31, 1912, fifty- five hundred and sixty-seven workers representing the best young life of the colleges. In addition to the great number having entered the field, there is in process a vigorous movement of propagandism extending to the leading colleges throughout the land. Its aim is to maintain a constant educational campaign in the in- 220 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE terests of missions among the various communities of students. As a result many thousands who do not go into foreign work will enter upon their life pursuits in business and in the various professions bearing with them an intelligent and lively interest in the cause of missions. Since the Edinburgh Conference there has been a vast growth of sentiment toward a general federation of Protestantism for the missionary conquest of the heathen world. There is at present no movement in the interests of which there is awakened a wider vision, none in which there is enlisted a more far-seeing and world-statesmanship than the cause of Christian mis- sions. This work is so engrossing, its function so im- perative, that Dr. John R. Mott could promptly decline the ambassadorship to China rather than to turn aside from the work of organizing Christian forces for the spiritual conquest of the Oriental world. He is a veritable leader among the prophets. And there is an army of consecrated lives under such leadership looking with confident expectation to a near day when the most decisive turning of the heathen multitudes to Christ shall be witnessed. There is a prophetic feeling brooding in the hearts of multitudes that God is preparing the way for near and great world-victories for the king- dom of his Son. Missionary management as now conducted is no haphazard affair. The great funds which pass through the missionary treasuries have all of them, or nearly so, to be secured from the free offerings of the churches. To stimulate the spirit of giving in the Church at large CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 221 requires an inevitable outlay in educational effort, in field work, and in other ways. In consideration of these necessitated expenses, it is noteworthy that the administrative work of the large boards does not absorb more than about five per cent on all sums collected. This is high commendation for the business economies of these boards. The boards, as a rule, are housed in spacious and well-adapted offices, are composed of representatives from the best reputed clergymen and laymen of the respective denominations. These boards, collectively the custodians of many millions of dollars, are charged with the grave and delicate responsibility of giving the most efficient administration to these vast sums. The execu- tive officers are carefully chosen secretaries, men selected because of their high Christian character and assured fitness for their important tasks. These men give their entire time to the study of mission fields, to the devising of methods for the instruction and quickening of the interests of the Church at large in the cause, and to such other duties, not a few, as may be incident to their office. The members of these boards, excepting the secretarial officers, render their services without financial com- pensation. The business functions of the board are so adjusted that no single factor entering into mission adminis- tration can supposedly escape scrutiny, advisement, and direction. There is not a candidate for the mission field who does not pass a most searching examination. His moral character, his religious experience, his edu- cational history, his sanity of view and conviction, his 222 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE stamina of purpose, his temperamental adaptiveness to missionary work, his freedom from financial embarrass- ment, his physical fitness all these are made subjects of closest scrutiny. The missionary boards are in- creasingly critical, and rightly so, in the process of accept- ing candidates. Increasing knowledge of the heathen world intensifies the necessity of sending out as mission- ary workers only men and women of high spiritual and intellectual attainments. In the heathen mind there is so much of philosophical discernment, such acute ethical and spiritual insight, as to make it not only useless but a travesty to send missionary workers of inferior intellectual attainments. There is no expectation on the part of the authori- ties that workers entering the fields are going to achieve at once spectacular successes. The work of the missionary is one requiring infinite patience and faith. The climate is to be mastered, the languages and cus- toms to be learned, and the respect and confidence of natives are to be won as very preliminaries to missionary usefulness. There is little in the life to minister to fickle fancies or romantic notions. The missionary who enters intelligently upon his work is prepared to expect long and laborious waiting before he shall reap the fruits of success. "Moffat was in Bechuanaland eleven years before he baptized his first convert; Carey waited seven years for his first convert in India, and John Beck was in Greenland five years before there was any indication of interest in his work. Missionaries worked in Uganda four years with no visible results. Morrison labored CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 223 in more or less secrecy in China for twenty-seven years, praying for the time when he would be able to hold public meetings, and died without seeing that accom- plished. Gilmour preached twenty years in Mongolia before he could report visible results. The first Zulu was converted after fifteen years of work." 1 We have noted the phenomenal success of winning converts to the Christian faith. But this success, in- spiring as it is, falls far short of measuring the results of missionary effort. Wherever the missionary has gone, there the institutions of education spring up. There are now established in the mission fields of the world, and as the direct outcome of missionary effort, more than thirty-two thousand nine hundred and eighty schools grading all the way from the college and the theological school down to the kindergarten. In these different schools there are in training nearly three mil- lion, five hundred thousand pupils. In the list of insti- tutions named there are eighty-six of university or college grade, and more than five hundred theological training schools or classes, most of which are entirely devoted to the preparation of native workers. The educational work thus summarized is monumental, magnificent. But it represents only inside figures. It is but a leaven of saving influence, self-multiplying, which more and more will work its enlightening way into and through the great masses of native workers. The British Blue Book of 1904 says, "From a very early date missionary societies have played an important part in the development of Indian education." The 1 Carl Crow. World's Work. October. 1913. 224 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE boys and girls educated in the mission schools, in many cases, come to commanding influence in government positions. Sir Andrew H. L. Fraser, late lieutenant- governor of Bengal, says, "It has been my policy to find out the school from which boys who are candidates for government service come, and I find that the best boys have come from missionary schools and colleges." Dr. James S. Dennis, an authority on education in India, says, "The educational enthusiasm which plans large things for the benefit of all classes of the Indian population has pertained almost wholly to the program of missions." Hand in hand with the missionary have gone the physician and the nurse. The mission of Christianity is to the bodies as well as to the souls of men. There have been planted in missionary territory sixty-seven medical schools and schools for nurses. Under the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church alone there are operated nineteen hospitals. The hospital work of Christian physician and nurse has made an enormous impression upon the heathen mind. It lends great reenforcement to mis- sionary work. The work of the missionary puts so beneficent a touch upon manifold human interests as to make the classifica- tion of all its benefits impossible. I again take pleasure in quoting from Mr. Crow: If any proof were needed of the really superior abilities of the mission- aries, it is to be found in their contributions to science. We owe to them practically all our present knowledge of foreign languages. The vast extent of their work along this line can be appreciated by the fact that the Bible is now published in more than six hundred tongues, though CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 225 in the year of the American Revolution it was known in less than seventy. Set yourself to learn one hundred Chinese characters or a page from an Arabic dictionary, and you will have a new respect for the missionary who is required to master one of these languages. Yet, the task of translating the Bible into these great but difficult tongues is easy com- pared to that faced by other workers who have found tribes with a lan- guage so poor that even the simple message of Christianity could not be told in it. There the missionary has undertaken the tedious task of building up and enriching the language, adding new words or new com- binations of words. After years of work of this kind, he is able to tell the story he came to tell. I know a missionary who has been working among the Eskimos for eight years, and has not yet been rewarded with a convert, but he is not discouraged. In a few years more he will have educated the natives to the point where they will be able to understand his message, and then he expects results. It is not alone in philology that the missionaries have distinguished their professions. It was a missionary who first explored Africa, and gave the first impetus toward the development and enlightenment of that great dark continent. ... A Yankee missionary manufactured the first set of movable types for the Chinese, thereby making possible the development of the Chinese newspaper. And we who live in the Orient owe the jinriksha to the inventive genius of another. More than twenty- five years ago the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions was able to fill a large book of five hundred pages with a record of the contributions of missionaries to science, and a second volume of equal size would be necessary to bring the record up to date. If there is one supreme message in the history of Christian missions, that message is not one of discourage- ment. The history itself, however ample, is ever amplify- ing; but in all the record there is no room for doubt. The territory of missionary achievement is one lighted along all its borders by the radiance of a coming glory, and across all its spaces herald voice answers to herald voice in proclamation of the sure and victorious triumph of Him to whom God shall give a name above every other name that is named either in the heavens above or in the earth beneath. THE INWORKING GOD 227 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth : for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you. JOHN 16. 7-14. "Spirit, who makest all things new, Thou leadest onward: we pursue The heavenly march sublime. 'Neath thy renewing fire we glow, And still from strength to strength we go, From height to height we climb. "To thee we rise, in thee we rest; We stay at home, we go in quest, Still thou art our abode. The rapture swells, the wonder grows, As full on us new life still flows From our unchanging God." The Kingdom is coming, not come; the Church is making, not made. Christendom is, in a sense, a word of the past; its history may be traced out and written down. In a sense it is a word of the present, representing a mighty living force to-day. Still more is it a word of the future, for as yet we have not been able to see what "Christianity" fully means. He was right who, in answer to the question, Is the Christian religion "played out"? replied, "It has not yet been tried." The disciples of the kingdom are, as yet, far from having exhausted the resources of the treasure house intrusted to their care. W. T. DAVISON, M.A., D.D. 228 CHAPTER XII THE INWORKING GOD UNDER the charm of his indescribable personality, the little band of disciples for three wonderful years, more or less, had been companioned with Christ. In this time they had come to associate his continual pres- ence with them as indispensable to the realization of their most cherished hopes and intense ambitions. When the fact really came home to them that Christ was about to go bodily and finally from their presence they were grief-stricken, appallingly disappointed. It was then that Christ said unto them: "It is better for you that I go away. If I go, I will send you another Comforter, and he, the Spirit of Truth, shall take of the things of mine and shall show them unto you. He will guide you into all the truth." This promise of the Holy Spirit, made by the departing Christ, is one so infinite in significance that its wealth of meaning has hardly yet begun to be understood, much less appropriated in the faith of the Church. The Holy Spirit is God in the world working through the ages the mission and kingdom of Jesus Christ. Christ in his person, in his mission, in the purpose for which he became incarnate, was a being immeasurably larger than was at all apprehended even by those who stood nearest him in the days of his flesh. To interpret this being, and to fulfill his purpose, is the mission 229 230 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE of the Holy Spirit even to the end of the earthly ages. I can but believe that in Christian thought generally a too narrow construction has been given to the mission of the Spirit. We have emphasized his work in pro- ducing in the individual, conviction of sin, the penitent purpose, and in setting the seal of divine pardon upon the truly repentant soul. We have extolled the mis- sion of the Spirit in his office of regenerating and sancti- fying the life of the believer. We must never give less emphasis to his work in these vital processes of individual salvation. But the Spirit doing all this does immeasurably more. He is the one vital and adequate agent for directing and effectuating all the processes of Christ's kingdom in the earth. There is no factor of knowledge, of dis- position, of beliefs or thought or deeds which shall con- tribute to the making of Christ's kingdom with which the Spirit has not to do. It is his mission to break down the standards, and to banish the darkness of paganism by the introduction and substitution of Christly ideals, and by the continuous and increasing revelation to mankind of Him who is the Light of the world. The stress which the apostolic writings, especially those of Saint Paul, lay upon the function of the Spirit in dealing with the moral necessities of mankind, and in making for these necessities the divinest provision, is something little less than amazing. There is no moral need of any soul for which the Holy Spirit does not seek to make instant and adequate response. Saint Paul's conception of the ministry of Christ through THE INWORKING GOD 231 the Spirit was so transcendent that he taxed his ut- most ability and the capacity of language even to attempt its expression. But aside from his divine and mar- velous dealings with the individual soul, it is the mis- sion of the Spirit so to deal with the entire world as finally to bring it under the scepter and dominion of Jesus Christ. The processes of the Spirit are moral. Whatever standing-room the Spirit may have in man's moral nature, it remains true that all the lower instincts, all the animal, selfish, cruel, and barbarous heredities, will rise in stubborn contest against the Spirit's work in the individual soul. This is the ground of ceaseless conflict. To gain moral supremacy over the individual and in turn over civilization is the Spirit's supreme task with the human world. This mission is so stu- pendous that beside it all enterprises which may challenge interest are dwarfed. The triumphs of the Spirit over communities and civilizations, historically measured, are by slow advances. Christ himself compared the process to leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal. In case of the individual the Spirit can come to con- trolling possession only by a process of inworking and transformation which makes man morally and literally a "new creature" in Christ Jesus. The whole category of opposing forces, the progeny of that which Saint Paul depicts as the "carnal mind," that mind which is enmity against God, must be scourged out before the soul shall appear luminous and beautiful with the indwelling Christ. The test of the Spirit's reign in the 2 3 2 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE soul is that one's walk, his daily conduct, the habitual outgoings of his life, shall show conformity to the law of the Spirit. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." If a life is Spirit-governed, it will put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy. Neither filthy communication nor lies will proceed from the lips of the spiritually minded man. In his relation to his fellows, he will be forbearing, forgiving, and in all things charitable. In the Spirit's larger relation to the world the same opposition which controls the unregenerate individual is arrayed against his work, only in the former case this opposition is on a world-scale. In the world-mass the obstacles which the Spirit must overcome are intrenched largely in laws, customs, institutions, all of which, in the revealing light of the Spirit, are increasingly seen as subversive of progress, or as working positive injury to human interests. There is no bondage under which mankind is more helpless than that of custom. A bad custom is a most vicious educator of society. It holds its subjects to limited views, to false standards, and closes their vision to new advances of truth. It has often given the binding force of law to usages which in themselves are utterly destitute of moral worth, usages which in no way have contributed to the values of character. It has often so misdirected the moral sense of whole civilizations as to lead them in the very name of Christ to monstrous perversions of his Spirit. If the moral ideals of an age root themselves in bar- barism, then the people of that age, if nominally Chris- THE INWORKING GOD 233 tian, will have a barbarous Christianity, a Christianity in whose very name they will commit atrocious out- rages against both God and man. In a large way, it must be remembered that Chris- tianity, numerically small, began its mission face to face with a solidly pagan world. Its moral successes in its first centuries are a standing marvel in history. It brought such inspiring hopes to, and wrought such divine transformations in, multitudes of lives as to make its progress irresistible. But the Church born at Pentecost, by reason of its very successes, went under an eclipse of barbarism lasting a thousand years. Its faith was nominally accepted, and its membership nominally espoused by hordes of unregenerate heathen. There were imposed upon its life the philosophies, the usages, the godless policies and strifes of a pagan world. During this long submergence the vital flame of Christianity was never wholly extinguished, but it burned only dimly, fitfully here and there. Above all and around all were the overshadowing traditions and ideals of pagan thought. This paganism had mistranslated and caricatured the very ideals of the gospel. It had foisted upon human credulity base and injurious conceptions of Christianity itself. Thus it had seized the very name under which Christianity had won its greatest victories as the refuge and shelter of philosophies, customs, and conduct which were most subversive of the very spirit and purpose of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The overcoming of a paganism so well-nigh universal, the emancipation of the human mind from its thought- 234 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE methods, would be a task both intellectual and moral of prodigious magnitude. It would prove a task for ages rather than for any one generation. Indeed, a priori, it might be asked, how could it be possible that so great a world-paganism should ever be displaced? It was the universal phenomenon with which the world-mind was familiar. In the same way one looking upon, and familiar only with, winter might ask why should winter ever change? But presently, by unobserved approaches, the earth sustains a new relation to the sun. A strange warmth melts the snows, and under the genial touch of new atmospheres the earth teems with life and beauty, and the air is musical with bird-song. And we say, and say rightly, the whole is one of God's miracles. And so upon the great world-paganism, a paganism intrenched in the inheritances, customs, and traditions of ages, there has come, as the vernal sun in nature, pervasive, illuminating, and vitalizing, a movement of the Divine Spirit which is surely transforming the cold and forbidding winter of human history into the beauty and fruitfulness of a new moral springtime. We cannot readily overemphasize the greatness of the Spirit's world-processes. The progress of the spirit- ual enlightenment and transformation of human society is a development which is clearly within the processes of evolution. The development is not always uniform. It is sometimes marked by dynamic outbreaks and up- lifts which might properly be named epochs. Following the long moral night of the Christian ages, there came in successive order such movements as the Renaissance, marked by the revival of learning and the creative THE INWORKING GOD 235 awakening of the human intellect; the maritime dis- covery of new continents, preparing the way for a new world-commerce and a new intermingling of the nations; the invention of printing, an agency for the multiplica- tion and preservation of knowledge, and the prophecy of a world-community of thought; the Reformation of the sixteenth century, a movement vastly emancipating of the human mind from the spiritual tyranny of ages; the movements of free thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which marked a just and triumphant revolt of the human intellect against the bondage of priestcraft, of traditional fables, and of spurious phil- osophies ; the^tide of a new spiritual life, as the Wesleyan revival, transforming and uplifting the common life of a nation, and projecting vast and continuous moral movements into all civilizations; the creation and mul- tiplication within the last century of new sciences, em- bracing all departments of human research, covering material nature, the physical, intellectual, and spiritual life of man, bringing to man's vision infinite enlarge- ment of the universe, unmeasured extension in time of creative processes, creating for the human mind new standards of thought, and begetting a new passion for and love of the truth for truth's sake, placing in command of man a universal wealth of new knowledge, and yet a knowledge which is but the prophecy of in- finite intellectual and moral treasures yet to be realized; the growing realization in the present time, through a world-mingling commerce, through a world-diffusion of common intelligence and interests, of the solidarity of man, the world over, in all his material, social, intel- 236 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE lectual, and moral needs, all of which is but the sure prophecy of an ever-closer consolidated community of world-interests all these are but signal landmarks set along the way of the world's spiritual redemption. We are quite accustomed to regard all these as move- ments with which the historian familiarly deals as steps in human progress. But who shall tell us how much the Holy Spirit had to do in inspiring the human mind for the discovery of, and in directing human activities for, the development of these great movements? There should be no Christian doubt that the Holy Spirit through the centuries has steadily wrought by means of these movements for the bringing in of Christ's kingdom upon the earth. But, however wonderful may appear the advances already realized, in considering the Spirit's mission as a developing process, we must see that the world is as yet only at some of the way stations, perhaps early ones, along the line of true spiritual progress. It is the mis- sion of the Spirit to take of the things of Christ and to show them unto men. Christ did not utter all the truth. He did not give specific statement to some truth, probably a large volume of truth, which may finally require application in working out the world's redemption. Let it be granted that in his recorded teaching there are contained the formative germs of all moral, spiritual, and social truth which may be finally required for human advancement. He did not attempt to develop these germs upon the thought of his genera- tion. This would have been even to Christ a task impossible. There was no sufficient development of THE INWORKING GOD 237 intellectual apprehension, of spiritual discernment, of world- thought, of receptive capacity, to which he could have made appeal for the fully developed view of his coming kingdom. Among his last statements to his disciples was: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth." The knowledge of Christ's kingdom is now vastly richer than was, or could have been, true for the men of Christ's own time. But if Christ in the flesh were with us to-day, he would still say to this generation, as he said to his own, "There are yet many things nec- essary to my kingdom, but ye cannot receive them now." The Spirit of truth, he must still work on in preparation for those further and higher developments of the King- dom for which present human enlightenment is not ready. Christ, for instance, did not once give direct utter- ance in condemnation of slavery. There can be no doubt of the utter incompatibility between the spirit of his kingdom and the institutions of slavery. The triumph of Christ's kingdom could mean nothing less than the destruction of all slave systems. Yet, it has required eighteen centuries of developed Christian thought uo abolish slavery from civilization. With the growth of moral knowledge the world will be just as sure to condemn and to cast out other evils which are now domesticated in human society. There exist many social, mercantile, and political practices, many ideals, prejudices, tempers, which at present are either cher- 238 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ished or tolerated in what passes as good society, all of which will be rebuked and displaced under the standards of more perfect Christian knowledge. Happily for such a prediction, the spiritual education of the world, the application of Christian thought to the great realms of social, mercantile, and political activities, is a process now of rapid development and of wide movement. This is an age of bewildering enrichment in knowledge, in science, in invention, in its creation of gigantic mer- cantile enterprises and industries. The combined effect of all these and kindred factors is to give to the age a distinctive place in human history. But with the ad- vent of such an age one great fact to be observed is that the welfare of man as an individual, the weal of the social and industrial organism as a whole, were never so sought and studied as now. The final test of values in all thought, science, art, industrial and capitalistic enterprises, turns on the decision as to whether these factors are promotive of human welfare, whether they serve in the last resort the physical, the intellectual, and moral betterment of mankind. There is such a fact as a divine pragmatism. Of all the wealth of modern appliances, appliances which have given us in these days a distinctive world, nothing receives unreserved approbation except that which con- tributes real values to man's individual and collective life. Final judgments of values are attained only by most severe and sifting processes. Tests as exacting as any known in the physical laboratory under the dry and white light of science are applied to all thought THE INWORKING GOD 239 and to all activities which appeal for the social or moral betterment of society. It requires only a discerning study of these testing processes to discover that they are governed by ethical and spiritual judgments. The Divine Spirit, the Spirit of truth, is never absent from their operations. Under this divine guidance the race is not only appro- priating an ever-enlarging wealth of knowledge, but is continuously growing into clearer moral vision, steadily being lifted up from animal and material tastes to the plane of moral and spiritual judgments. Man as a being of unlimited intellectual and moral possibilities is taking, in the world's thought, a place of ever-enlarging values. New standards of human worth are being everywhere lifted up, and in their presence institutions and distinctions built on lines of caste, slavery, race hatred, wealth, learning, social rank, are all felt to be unworthy barriers if separating men from active sym- pathy with, or service to, their fellow men. God is gradually teaching all civilizations bearing the name Christian that man, whatever his race, environment, condition, is a creature of such divine possibilities as to dwarf all material values and artificial distinctions as between men. And so everywhere, and with accel- erated movement, there is a growth of humane feeling, an enlarging sense of human brotherhood, and a higher valuation of any service rendered in the interests of humanity. So true is this that the ideal heroes of the age, the men and women who take the first place in human esteem and gratitude, are those who give themselves 2 4 o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE in most generous and unselfish service for mankind. Among the rich, not those who have the greatest fortunes are honored, but they who devote their wealth to great- est human service; among those of privileged life in any sphere, not they who dwell in the spirit of exclusiveness or selfishness, but they who use their superior strength in giving hands to the weak and in uplifting the less privileged these are they who wear the imperishable crown of human gratitude. Our historic heroes are the men and women who really give, not their belong- ings, but themselves to the service of their fellows. If we scan the rostrum of the ages for the names of those whom the race ranks as the noblest of its sons, names that will never die out of human gratitude, it will be discovered that all are names of unselfish, un- sordid, and non-mercenary lives. Luther, standing alone for a great truth against the throned powers of Europe; Kepler, fighting his toilsome way to master the laws of planetary motion; Milton, blind and lonely, writing the great epic of Puritanism; John Howard, giving his life to improve the condition of prisoners; Florence Nightingale, moving like an angel of consolation through the Crimean hospitals; Wilberforce and George Peabody, using unstintedly their wealth and themselves in mis- sions of philanthropy; Abraham Lincoln, emancipator and martyr; Livingstone, threading the malarial wilds of Africa to carry the gospel to its barbarous hordes; the Morrisons, the Careys, the Judsons and the Bash- fords, giving themselves in consuming zeal for the re- demption of heathen races; General Booth planting civilization over with Salvation Army camps for the THE INWORKiNG GOD 241 rescue of the poor and perishing these, and an im- mortal multitude of others, were filled with a heaven- born passion of service. But the very qualities in these typical characters which command for them the abiding love and admira- tion of mankind are those which class them one and all, as being in near kinship to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Christ, whose qualities it is the office of the Spirit to show to the world, is more and more hailed in human thought not only as the supreme moral leader but as the most exalted servant of humanity. Christ as re- vealer emphasized as very chief truths the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. His entire life was characterized by a continuous outpouring of service for human needs. His love was utterly unselfish, with- out self-seeking. That he might show his perfect human sympathy, he put himself in helpful contact with the most abject and outcast of human kind. In order that he might pay the last pledges of what- ever of judgment, redemption, or atonement, which may have been involved in his mission to the world, he stopped short of no service, no sacrifice which those pledges required. He emptied himself of the divine glory, became poor, was homeless, lived as a servant of servants, and finally along a path of agony more bitter than was ever traversed by any other mortal, he went to death upon the cross. The standards of thought, of motive, of service, of sacrifice, of flawless loyalty to God and truth, as re- vealed in this peerless life, are receiving ever-increasing welcome and hospitality, are more and more recognized 242 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE as the necessary standards for the final civilization. And so it is coming to pass in these later days, with ever-accelerated movement, with ever-increasing num- bers, and in large constructions, that men are hailing the "Golden Rule" as containing in itself the final solution of the racial, the social, and industrial misad- justments of the world. The moral movements of this age as inspired and marshaled by the Holy Spirit are vital and vast beyond any classification. The ideals of Jesus Christ are being embodied in thought, in literature, in philanthropy, in legislation, in industrial and social philosophies as never before. And so it is sublimely true that the in- working God is commanding ever-augmenting agencies of human service to the consummation of that . . . far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves. 243 What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form, and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! SHAKESPEARE. If ye are mystery, I am mind. Ye know that the soul is strong and fears nothing when God's breath bears it on. Ye know that I will go even to the blue pilasters, and that my tread does not tremble on the ladder that mounts to the stars. VICTOR HUGO. The meaning of human life is revealed in this: that nothing less than the infinite and almighty is sufficient for it to work with. Man standing beneath the implacable nebulae, in his pinpoint of space, man among the eons that threaten to engulf his moment of time, is overwhelmed, annihilated; until he learns that everything he has to work upon demands the whole power in and beyond and above all these, and he is one with that which fills and transcends them. If the power which presents it- self as the highest does not apply directly to each element of human labor, it is not of that unlimited sufficiency. When simple men demand an evangel for daily works and needs, their requisition is the infinite and eternal. When idealists aspire after the highest, it is not the highest unless it mingles itself with the lowliest drudgery, which it transforms into the universal task, God's and ours, of spirit's transcendent self- realization. CHARLES HENRY DICKINSON. 244 CHAPTER XIII THE DIVINENESS OF MAN THE two supreme facts of Christian revelation are God and Man. These facts are the two foci of the moral universe. These facts the Christian revelation invests with a distinctive, an infinite, significance and value which from no other source could be possible to human thought. God, under one conception or an- other, has always been a postulate of thought. The gradations of conception about God which have been entertained in the human mind, from lowest to highest, form well-nigh an infinite series. Outside of Christianity, Hebrewism undoubtedly reached the loftiest view of Deity. The God of the later Hebrew thought was a God of unspeakable majesty. He was almighty, sovereign, ubiquitous, holy. The an- cient litany and song voiced the story of his loving- kindness, of his tender and forgiving mercies toward his people, and the prophets preach him as a God whose righteous and beneficent providence ever broods over the world. But if we had no other revelation of God than that furnished in the Old Testament, we would still be infinitely far from that view and knowledge of him which are furnished to us in Jesus Christ. The God of the Hebrews would remain to us largely a God of unapproachable awe. We would be forced to think of him as the God whose voice utters itself, and whose 245 246 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE majesty flames, in the thunders and lightnings of Sinai. A vision of this God sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, his power irresistible, his holiness a consuming fire, would be one to cause us, as it did Isaiah, to fall upon our faces in awe and fear. Sovereignty, unapproach- able majesty, avenging righteousness are the attributes with which the Old Testament clothes God. "Clouds and darkness are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." There is more in the picture to inspire fear than to beget a sense of confidence and love. The New Testament in no sense detracts from the might, majesty, and glory of God as set forth in the Old Testament. But it presents God to our view in a sense that brings him infinitely nearer to our human needs, in a sense that inspires our affection, confidence, and devotion immeasurably beyond the power of Old Testament ideals to evoke. In Jesus Christ God is set forth in an absolutely distinct relation to man from that declared by any other religion known. In Christ God becomes a new being in his relation to us. The chief, the central, significance of Christ's revelation of God is that God is an eternal Father. The wonder- ful thing about Christ is that he is the Son of God. Christ's relations to God are those of a Son in holiest, closest, and eternal intimacy and harmony with the Father. The one purpose in the gospel of Jesus, the purpose which subordinates all other movements of God toward men, is to bring man into real sonship with God. However significant, however transcendent its importance, we shall get at the core-meaning of the THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 247 atoning work of Christ only as we interpret it in the divine purpose to bring God and man together in the eternal relations of Fatherhood and Sonship. Here alone man receives his own highest interpreta- tion. Here he discovers that he is not made to be a mere creature and subject of government. He will reach his truest state only as he takes his place in the divine family, only as he becomes a son and heir in the household of the eternal Father. This is Christ's thought, the supreme purpose of his gospel. And who does not see that in the moral heirship of redemption as thus revealed all artificial ranks, obstacles, and castes which men have created between themselves and their fellows are remanded to insignificance and nothingness? In the redemption and Sonship of the gospel there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus. Thus the gospel not only brings to the world a new conception of God but it brings a new construc- tion of man. It makes all men potentially creatures of infinite worth, heirs of infinite possibilities. The value and power of this conception may be par- tially measured by the historic reforms which its advent has actually wrought in human society. It introduced a new view as to the essential sacredness and dignity of all human life. History is clear in its testimony that prior to Christ's coming, even in the most refined civilizations, human life in many forms was held as among the cheapest of commodities. The master uni- versally held the legal power of life and death over the slave. Many instances are recorded of the most 248 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE wanton massacre of slaves as a result of the master's caprice. The enlightened Greek valued the life of his bar- barian prisoner taken in war as no better than that of a dog. The Roman populace in the palmiest days of the empire thronged the arena to amuse itself by witnessing the brutal slaughter of men in gladiatorial contests. Such murderous exhibitions awakened no more compunction among these ancient peoples than would the slaughter of game in the chase. Infanticide, the exposure and destruction of infants, was a crime fearfully prevalent among the most advanced civiliza- tions, and there was neither law nor public sentiment of any sufficient force to arrest, much less to prohibit, this fearful evil. Christianity introduced an entirely new ideal into the world's thinking. Even the very slaves were in- vested with divine rights as the children of God. The gladiatorial shows long persisted, but the Church excom- municated its members who attended these exhibitions, refused baptism to the gladiator unless he pledged him- self to abandon his calling, and its preachers and writers ceaselessly denounced the gladiatorial contests as wicked. It is typical of Christian influence that in the very last of these contests, in the year A. D. 404, a monk named Telemachus rushed into the arena to separate the con- testants. He perished beneath a shower of stones which the angry spectators hurled upon him, but his death resulted in the final abrogation of the gladiatorial contests. And so practically Christianity everywhere has entered THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 249 her effective protest against the wanton destruction of human life. It has stamped infanticide as a high crime in all civilizations. Its exaltation of man as man has resulted in the abolishing of the grosser forms of human slavery throughout Christendom. And never more so than now was its voice lifted in potent protest against the oppression of the weak by the strong. The emphasis everywhere of its demand upon strength and wealth is not for authority but for service. Gibbon vividly pictures the undisguised and general contempt in which slaves were held by the privileged classes of Rome. It was generally felt that nothing good could come or was to be expected from the slave class. Both their moral and social conditions were on the lowest human plane. The slaves as a class were without aspira- tion and without hope. They were simply human cattle, beasts of burden. To this class, for the first time in history, Christianity came, bringing a new moral life and the inspiration of new hopes. It brought a philosophy of life and char- acter which made appeal to many qualities which slavery had developed in its subjects. Instead of stoical inde- pendence and patrician pride which entered largely into the manly ideals of the Roman freeman, Christianity enjoined as among its cardinal virtues, "humility, obe- dience, gentleness, patience, resignation." Christianity found the groundwork of these qualities already laid in the life of the slave. Its first great moral conquests were largely from the servile classes. The large number of its converts from among slaves was made the ground for bitter reproaches CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE from the pagan world. But Christianity transformed the life of its slave converts and crowned them with a new manhood. Among the heroic records of martyr- dom in the days of the persecuted Church frequently appear the names of slaves. In Christ they had found a new life and a new faith for which they were willing even to die. These historic illustrations may simply serve to show that it was in the very nature of Christianity in its practical workings to lay hold upon humanity for man's divine exaltation. Its primal declaration to the world was a message of the essential sacredness of the human soul. It came to all men, including the most lowly and unprivileged, proffering the charter of sonship in God's family and of heirship in God's kingdom. The initial proclamation of Christianity proposing a place for all men in the citizenship of a divine democracy was made against a well-nigh solid wall of tradition and custom which had stood through unrecorded time sep- arating the rich from the poor, the privileged from the lowly, the learned from the vulgar, the world's aristoc- racy from the great unwashed. To all seeming this wall was too stout to be breached, too high to be scaled. It would be the ready verdict of worldly wisdom that the task of Christianity in its presence was both help- less and hopeless. But Christ, whose vision sees infinitely beyond all appearances, was calmly willing to stake all on the final working out of the fundamental and eternal potentialities divinely planted in the human breast. The love of God's Fatherhood forever moving upon the world, the Spirit of divine truth forever working THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 251 in the human reason, will at some time dissipate all opposition, and God will come to his own in the divine responses of humanity. God's task with our human world is yet possibly only fairly begun. The consumma- tion may indeed be remotely distant, but the great Father will suffer no final defeat. His purposes will be crowned in a redeemed and glorified humanity. A great fact which has hitherto been too dimly apprehended, but a fact which must receive ever-enlarging translation into human convictions, is that of God's purpose in man. A luminous apprehension of this fact must prove an important factor in the education and preparation of the race for final harmony with God's plan for the world. The potential greatness of man is abundantly attested. The ancient singer seemed to catch something of its vision when he declared: "Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." Hints of man's greatness are seen in his achievements. The Greek mind has been the world's schoolmaster both in philosophy and in art. Plato and Aristotle bequeathed to the ages an inexhaustible wealth of thought. Greek artists sculptor and painter have furnished the most transcendent models of beauty for all the world. To the Roman genius the ages are indebted for the creation of great laws, laws so simple in construction that all modern civilizations dwell in security under their cover, so perfect in applica- tion that all the diverse and complex activities of man- kind receive under their control orderly direction with conservation of the rights of all. 252 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE The Semitic mind has been the channel of the highest religious and ethical thought. From far-away ages, and from the luminous heights of their moral attain- ment, the Hebrew prophets have stood forth before all subsequent ages as men elect of God, the peerless heralds of righteousness to mankind. The modern mind, in addition to absorbing and assimilating the knowledge of all preceding times, has given itself to the physical conquests of nature. Human science to-day with inquisitorial spirit invades all ma- terial and psychic realms, demanding to know the final truth, the last secret that may be anywhere resident in them all. The spirit of invention has, as by a miracle, captured and harnessed for the innumerable and ever- multiplying uses of life the hidden forces of nature. The oceans are conquered and traversed by triumphant fleets of merchandise. Continental spaces have been annihilated by steam and electric-sped chariots. The most diverse and antipodal races are brought into a near and single community of intelligence and interest by the electric flash which instantly transmits all thought and achievement to the ends of the earth. Human industry, guided by intelligence, is a march of triumphal conquest and annexation into all the provinces of nature. The dynamic forces of the globe are surrendering them- selves in tribute to man's all-conquering genius. In reviewing the marvels of human achievement, two facts merit attention: First, man is greater, vastly so, than his creations. Humanity as a whole, is far greater than all the literature, the philosophy, the arts, the laws, the religious epochs, the sciences and inven- THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 253 tions which have been born of human brain or heart or hand. The race is larger than any civilization which it has as yet developed. The best civilizations are being steadily outgrown. And, so man as a single being is immeasurably greater than his greatest achieve- ments. Shakespeare's dramas are peerless. But Shake- speare is by all heights and breadths greater than his plays. Edison has been called the wizard of invention. But Edison sees a far larger world than the one he has yet conquered. A second fact is that the most sovereign achievements of man are simply for service. The creature to be served is august, a being immeasurably more potential and noble than any mere instrument of service. The great philosophies, the great arts, the great literatures, the great laws, the great inventions, the great aggregations of knowledge, the great religions are all ordained for the service and advancement of man. Any sane and adequate analysis of history must demonstrate man's greatness over nature, his greatness over and beyond all his own achievements. But it remains to be said that when we would form approximately some true conception of man's potential greatness we must enter the realm of prophecy. All the best history of the past does little more than to suggest the dawn of man's possible future. God himself has lifted before us two standards from which we can base a sure prophecy of the godlike future awaiting man. The one is the Cross, the other is Evolution. In approaching the subject of the cross, one should feel profoundly that it is of unfathomable meaning. 254 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE It is a subject to be approached only with a penitent and cleansed vision. If Sinai was majestically articulate in declaring God's holy and eternal hostility to sin, then the cross of Calvary, as not all other revelations, was God's object lesson of the exceeding hatefulness of sin itself. Calvary, whatever else it may mean, means nothing less than an unmeasured cost, a cost prompted by infinite love, and volunteered on the part of God, to make possible man's redemption from the indescrib- able curse and doom of sin. But for the present purpose I elect to consider the cross as indicating the measure of God's investment in the interests of man. God makes no mistakes. He makes no unwise investments. If in studying the cross, it magnifies into meanings too large for our meas- urement, if its significance radiates into the moral im- mensities and eternities, we may not forget that all its transcendent meaning anchors and centers itself in God's interest in humanity. God sees in redeemed man values which not only balance, but which immeasurably overbalance all the, to us inconceivable, cost of the tragedy. In reflecting upon this thought we must not permit ourselves to become incredulous because of the vision of the great mass of poor, of dwarfed, of sinful, and of apparently worthless humanity with which our present observation makes us all more or less familiar. We must make Christ our human object lesson. As Mary did, we must sit in rapt devotion at his feet. We must study him in whom the Father declared himself as ever well pleased, until our vision shall be filled with God's own ideal of manhood. THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 255 Christ is the kind of Man into whose likeness God pro- poses through the transforming grace and nurture of his cross to bring all men. If the task to our human belief seems insurmountable, we must still not so far forget ourselves as to question God's ability to bring it to pass. It is an impertinence, the impertinence of a conceited and infantile mind, to question any part of God's strategy in his great campaign of human redemption. When Christ went to Calvary no one in the universe knew as well as God knew the poor, the degenerate, the degraded quality of humanity. God saw it all, and he unhes- itatingly assumed all the risk of his redemptive work. Men, for reasons most puerile perhaps because they have some fine mahogany furniture, perhaps because they think they have refinement of taste, perhaps be- cause their intellects are a little more polished affect to despise and to remain aloof from the masses of their fellows to whom God has given the same bounteous air, and a vision of the same green earth and the same over-arching heavens as to themselves. Of all our needs, one of the greatest of all is that we should be lifted above the petty narrownesses and smallnesses of much of the world's present social judgments. God justly measures human material. He proposes from humanity just as he sees it, just as it is, to develop a divine democracy for the citizenship of his kingdom in the heavens. The cross testifies to nothing less than to infinite values in human nature. Of course God is acting on a long calendar for the development of his purposes in man. The gospel of 256 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE Jesus is a gospel of immortality. This age has come to be so absorbed in material pursuits that the vision of immortality has passed somewhat under eclipse. Our thinking to-day about the glories of the immortal life is well-nigh in inverse ratio to the values of that life itself. But immortality and exhaustless opportunities are indispensable conditions for the development of humanity in God. The present earthly life at best is but rudimentary. Its conditions and limitations are such as to exclude the vast majorities of men from real- izing the best inborn prophecies of themselves. Men in great masses, by the very limitations which press upon them in this life, are shut away from attaining the ideal either in the sphere of intellectual enrichment or of moral development. The opportunity of such is yet to come. Immortality will furnish them the limit- less landscape and opportunity for the fullest develop- ment of their powers. 1 Who shall measure or picture to us the heritage of immortality for the sons of God? We find ourselves at present living in a physical universe practically in- finite in dimensions and resources. In the sphere of intellectual possibilities the immortal mind finds itself placed in an immensity of worlds worlds all of which are under a common sway, and the study of which it might require an eternity to exhaust. But we may not forget that the material universe, immense and marvelous as it is, is but of secondary value. God's real glory is moral. The crowning destiny which he 1 In this paragraph I in no way intend to lend support to the theory of a post-mortem probation. I am voicing the view only of the unlimited growth toward perfection which immortality will afford to all its subjects. THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 257 purposes for man is moral. The highest pursuits and enjoyments of the sons of God will be forever spiritual. And if God overwhelms our minds by the revelations he makes of himself in the physical universe, what in- finitely higher moral and spiritual revelations may not his sons expect? While eternity progresses, God will forever press new revelations of his own exhaustless glories upon the unfolding vision and receptivity of his children. Not to the most inspired vision as yet has there been revealed more than the alphabet of man's infinite possibilities. But as the alphabet carries in itself the potencies of exhaustless literatures, so the best that has yet entered into the visions and experiences of prophets and saints is but the foregleams of intellec- tual dominions, moral attainments, and spiritual fellow- ships which forevermore shall translate men into God's likeness. Our best vision to-day is nearsighted. We are hedged in by barriers of inheritance, of narrow education, of untrained faculty, of skeptical habit, all of which bar us from wide outlook upon the universe of our real possibilities. We are provincial in our habits. Our beliefs are narrow. Our spiritual vision is not adjusted to telescopic distances. We are like dwellers in caves by the seashore rather than explorers of the mighty deeps. The wings of our souls are not yet trained for familiar flights through the starry spaces. But the Christian revelation inspires the faith that this being whom we now look upon as so limited will in the immortal life find scope for the most godlike development. His explorations will transcend the most 258 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE nebulous heights, his vision will range the eons. His life will grow ever richer, his joys ever deeper, his good- ness ever more beautiful, his knowledge ever larger, his attainments ever more godlike. The wealth of his future none can picture, for eternity alone can com- plete the history of his progress. Now, to the fact of man's supreme significance in the universe so inspiringly affirmed by Christian revela- tion, evolution lends a wondrous confirmation. Evolu- tion has no meaning without God. Unless its pathway from dark and dateless beginnings, and through count- less eons, leads finally to the portals of moral empire, unless at the goal and summit of its purpose there are finally to appear the intellectual and moral outworkings of Divinity, then, evolution, of all things, would prove a monstrous creed. A man who is at once an atheist and an evolutionist is one who might well view life as the most hopeless of blind alleys a meaningless maze. Evolution may perhaps be, as many thinkers believe it must be, accepted as the dominant philosophy of the universe. But it becomes increasingly clear that evolution is not an end in itself. It is a process which is seen to be ever working toward some goal not itself. The final goal toward which evolution works is something beyond an earth, or a sun, or all the starry systems. It has wrought toward these, and has worked out all their wondrous perfections. But if this were all, the universe would still be mute and meaningless. The goal of evolution is a universe peopled with moral and spiritual intelligence. This is the final worth and significance of it all. Whatever may be true in other THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 259 provinces of the universe, so far as this world is con- cerned man stands as the very crown of creation. Noth- ing beyond man or better is to be looked for except man himself perfected. Whatever, then, may appear as the well-nigh infinite investment of the creative and ever-transforming processes of evolution, processes which have been ever at work through engulfing ages of time, evolution itself from its far beginnings has with unerring purpose and skill been directed toward the final making of man. This end evolution will continue to pursue until, in the cloudless light of some coming eon, man shall appear as the perfected reflection of God. Thus the philosophy of evolution lends a measureless emphasis to the in- tellectual and moral values of man himself. Man is worth all the investment which unnumbered ages have contributed toward his production. It is this view, with its implications, which lends un- measured significance to that swelling passion of the modern world which voices itself in the interests of emancipating man, physical, intellectual, moral, from the long-asserted slaveries. Man, in his inherent rights, in his essential worth, in the divinity of his destiny, is coming more and more to stand in the focus of the world's best thought and service. The individual to whom has come luminously this broadening and uplifting ideal of man is thereby placed under supreme incentive to highest living. Nothing need humiliate him save the consciousness of being untrue to life's divine aim. He need not even yield to the fallacy which would remind him of the smallness 260 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE and insignificance of his place amid the surrounding immensities and the countless ages. He has a right to think of himself as a being toward whom God has wrought through all the eons, and to whom God makes possible a destiny more enduring and more glorious than the light of all the suns. This divine view of man is destined to take an ever- growing and controlling place in the common thought. The growing sense of man's worth as a spiritual being will surely displace the low and sordid ideals which have so largely enslaved the past. The barbarism of many business ideals is that they have placed more worth upon machinery than upon man, they have elicited more care for dividends than for the welfare of civilization. That labor in sweatshop and factory which stunts the physical growth of childhood, that dwarfs both its in- tellect and morals, that unfits motherhood for its func- tions, thus robbing posterity of its normal birthright all this is a crime against civilization which would be impossible of toleration were it not that a greed- ridden community has been content to rest in low and brutal views as to the worth of human life. Business methods that disqualify motherhood and that cripple childhood are a very atheism of infamy in God's world of humanity. When man comes to his rightful place in the thought of man, as he surely will, then all society will be morally sensitive in the interests of childhood. Motherhood will be regarded as a function so holy that all safeguards will be sentineled around it. In that day the tempers of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be enthroned in human THE DIVINENESS OF MAN 261 society. In the great world of trade, now so invaded by motives of piracy, an enlightened sense of equity will have been substituted for all unholy and destructive business rivalries. In the industrial world ideals of manhood, not lust of gold, will be in control. It will be a ruling conviction in society that God is dealing in this world for the purpose of developing a race of godlike men. The age foreseen by the poet is drawing near the Golden Age, that will Give human nature reverence for the sake Of One who bore it, making it divine With the ineffable tenderness of God; Let common need, the brotherhood of prayer, The heirship of an unknown destiny, The unsolved mystery round about us, make A man more precious than the gold of Ophir, Sacred, inviolate, unto whom all things should minister. WHITTIBR. MODERN PROPHETS New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth; They must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of Truth; Lo, before us gleam her camp fires! we ourselves must pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. Cast from our hearts, O Lord of life, Our selfishness and pride; Help us to choose the toiler's part, And suffer by his side. Give us courage, Lord, to fight With thee all greed of gold, To fight until thy kingdom's won, Thy kingdom long foretold. Love then shall reign supreme o'er all, O'er heart and mind and hand, Eternal love and brotherhood In all this storm-tossed land. MARION BUTTON SAVAGE. Most of the people whose faces you see in the Sabbath journals are of the upper four and a half per cent. We quote the four and a half per cent. We want to be acquainted with them. The cockles of our heart warm when we mention their names. Artists paint and chisel for them. Dressmakers design for them. Grocers cater to them. For them the huge hotels are built, and for them the hired singers and dancers yodel and caper in the gilt restaurants. But things are changing. Newspapers have found out that it is the ninety-five and a half per cent they must appeal to. The artists of the Renaissance never knew anybody existed except saints and nobles; but we have in the modern era an Israels, a Millet, and the Dutch painters. And Rodin turns to the laborer and to the generic man for his models. Governments are more and more legislating for the great masses. The spirit of the ninety-five and a half per cent pervades Washington more and more. That is the meaning of the currency bill, the tariff bill and the anti-trust laws. That is the significance of the present liberal govern- ment in England. Constantly the four and a half per cent are retreat- ing in the legislative halls of Germany, France, and Italy, before the self- assertion of the ninety-five and a half. The people are arriving. The clear thunders of justice are in the air. Humanity is coming of age, realizing itself and unloading its riders. DR. FRANK CRANE. 264 CHAPTER XIV MODERN PROPHETS IP into Christian thought there should come a dis- tinctive, a rising and swelling tide of interest in human welfare, it would be safe to assign a divine inspiration as the cause of such a movement. That such a tide is now invasive of Protestant Christianity admits of no intelligent denial. One of the most accredited seers of the relations of the Church to present-day social conditions says, "There is only one great creative enthu- siasm in American Protestantism the gospel of a saved society as well as of saved individuals." 1 The evolution of ideals which call for the betterment of human conditions in a sense inclusive of man's entire life, physical, intellectual, moral, is one of the most pronounced, insistent, and irrepressible developments in modern Christian thought. This is not to say that the awakened Christian mind has not always been actively solicitous in the interest of man's all-around welfare. It is in the very nature of Christian experience to kindle in the breast of its possessor the spirit of active sympathy with human needs. A genuine Christianity has always been characterized by a generous charity for the assuagement of man's physical woes. This has been true in Catholic and Protestant Christianity alike. No better examples in illustration could be asked for > Shailer Mathewm. 266 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE than are furnished in Francis Assisi and in John Wesley. Both were eminent as saints, both great preachers, both voluntarily yielded themselves to a life of poverty, both, like their Master, spent themselves in a constant ministry of loving service to the poor, the needy, and the sick. It is safe to say that no man has ever been deeply imbued with the spirit of Jesus Christ who has not been moved to benevolence both in spirit and in action. But at the heart of the present-day Christian enthu- siasm for human welfare there is a motive far more propelling and dominating than that simply which prompts to acts of charity toward the distressed, or almsgiving for the relief of the needy. A deep, per- vasive, and growing conviction has come into modern thinking that it is a part, and no small part, of the mis- sion of Christianity to remove the causes, the very conditions, from which so much of the world's needs and illnesses arise. This conviction arises from, or at least is reinforced by, two great facts. First, in the phenomenal and growing wealth of the present age, in the abundant fruitfulness of nature, there is made to appear a sufficiency of resource, if it were equitably distributed, to bring a large measure of physical com- fort to every human life. The fact can neither be obscured nor suppressed that in present-day thinking there is a growing conviction that the products of prosperity are neither being ideally nor equitably distributed among the producers of that prosperity itself. And this thought is by no means confined to socialistic circles, to malcontents in the MODERN PROPHETS 267 labor world, nor to anarchistic agitators. It is a con- viction which is stirring the warm lifeblood of the sanest Christian thinkers; a conviction which is receiving due exposition and irresistible enforcement at the highest seats of Christian learning. A near-coming age is just as certain to give heed to this conviction as though it were to announce itself by the battering-rams of war thundering against its very doors. The other great fact, a fact divinely certain at some time in the evolution of Christian thought, to come to full expression and recognition, is that which asserts the rightful claim of every man to an inheritance in the bounties of a common Father. The central revelation of Jesus Christ concerning God's Fatherhood is at once the most revolutionary, the most far-reaching and con- structive fact which has ever worked itself into human intelligence. If the stupendous doctrine of God's Father- hood is true, then, the twin doctrine to this, a doctrine equally true, is the brotherhood of man. If all men are the sons of God, this definitely means that the time will surely come when in our human world there will be no longer room for castes which cruelly separate man from man, no longer room for invidious distinctions be- tween the rich and the poor, between the learned and those less favored, when in society and in business it will be no longer tolerated that any man because he is rich and powerful shall take advantage of his weaker brother. This principle ramifies itself into all human relations. It is susceptible of infinite application. If man is God's son, if he is embraced in the redemptive love of Jesus 268 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE Christ, if as immortal he may have a career of deathless citizenship in God's kingdom, then he is a being en- titled to sacred consideration from all men. It is, of course, very clear nothing is more painfully clear that the world has not yet practically learned to place these values upon man. But if the doctrines of God's Fatherhood and of man's brotherhood are divine truths, then the values and relations for men which these truths call for furnish the only right standards of human measurement. The truths themselves can neither be destroyed nor displaced. God will never vacate his Fatherhood; and only by self -forfeiture can any man be deprived of the rights of sonship. From the beginning God has had to deal with a world made per- verse through ignorance, selfishness, and transgression. But he deals patiently. Gradually the divine light in- vades and overcomes man's darkness. There are times when light breaks forth suddenly over large areas of thought. God is not failing in his purposes. He is surely working toward a civilization in which the sacred character of man as man shall have central and regulative recognition. At present, though well-nigh unapprehended by the common thought, there is arising a great new moral education in the Church. This movement is so large, so enlightening, so inspirational, that it would seem fittingly characterized as the f oreheralding of the mightiest revival thus far known in the interests of the Kingdom. This movement has as its forerunners and expounders a new school a school of present-day and inspired prophets. This school specially emphasizes the demands for social, MODERN PROPHETS 269 business, and civic righteousness. These modern men, with conscience and vision such as mark their kinship with the great prophets of ancient Israel, are fearlessly focusing the white light of investigation upon all con- ditions social, commercial, and civic of our modern life. With patience and thoroughness, they are master- ing the very anatomy of all the forces which shape our modern world. As men moved solely by high and right- eous purpose, as men inspired for their task, they are furnishing a new exposition and application of the ethical principles of the gospel to all conditions of presentday life. We call this a new movement in Christian thought. In its deeper and distinctive character it is really such. It is both a noteworthy and surprising fact that less than two decades ago there was almost no distinctive literature on the social aspects of Christianity. 1 To-day there is a swarming product of this literature coming from the most virile brain of the Church. One message of this literature to the Church is that its traditional administrative methods are not adapted to deal effectively with the dynamic exigencies of modern life-movements. It is a summons to the churches to unite their counsels for the readaptation of old, or for the creation of new, methods for the better discharge of their mission to the world. The spirit of the new prophet is not flippant. He is made grave by the magnitude of his tasks. He de- sires to do no injustice even to those whose practices i The names of thoM leading and promoting the new awakening are too numerous to be listed here. Among them are: Peabody, Hill. Nash. Cunningham. Brooks. Keble, King. Mathews, lUuacbcnbuach, C. R. Brown, Leighton, Ward. Howerton. J. B. Clark, Hall. Dickinson. Carlisle. Plants, Cairns. Strong. S. G. Smith. Clow, Williams. Gladden, Welch. Earn. F. M. North. R. T. Ely. E. B. Gowin; and these are but a few of the valiant thinkers, who. on both sides of the seas, are summoning to the new social age. 270 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE he feels forced to expose and arraign. He knows but too well how insidious are the motives which hold men in bondage to courses of conduct and of business life which cannot be approved in the light of unclouded Christian convictions. He knows the moral fallacies which deceive men, and under which they sincerely seek self-justification. He utters his message, let it smite where it may, with no fondness for censure of the individual wrongdoer, in no spirit of malice toward any. Turning neither to the right nor to the left, he seeks to place himself securely and only on those prin- ciples of equity and truth through which alone the righteous interests of all men can be best served. In this spirit he makes no compromises with corporate selfishness, he stands in no awe of plutocratic dictation. But the new prophet of to-day, as the prophet of old, must lift up his voice against wrongs which arc powerfully intrenched in the heredities, customs, posses- sions, in the selfish greeds and ambitions of men. He must direct his message against very principalities and powers founded in social, industrial, and political in- justices. The god Mammon rules in a wide realm, a realm which grades from the highest to the lowest scale in reputational appearances. His worshipers are some- times numbered among pewholders in fashionable churches. Some of his most loyal subjects take high rank as philanthropists. Their names stand high on the lists of contributors to humane benevolences. 1 But 'I am immeasurably far from any intention to disparage a wealthy church member- ship in itself considered. I am the last to doubt that many wealthy Christians are not only men of highest integrity but men of deep and conscientious piety. But I as little doubt that in too many instances bad rich men wield too much influence in the Church. MODERN PROPHETS 271 the same Mammon is a chief counselor in the director- ates of the saloon and the brothel. It is his minions who manage the nameless underworld traffics, who pass the bribes in politics, who corrupt the police forces, who commit the graft robberies in municipal business, who water and vitiate the stocks of corporations, and who sometimes for their nefarious ends purchase the influence of the press. And there is nothing which Mammon so much desires as to be let alone. He has great plans in the execution of which he ill brooks interference or disturbance. He takes no stock in fine moral distinctions. He sees no necessity for honest politics. He is no believer in municipal reform. And when it comes to such ques- tions as improving the conditions of the poor, of giving to labor an enlarged share in the fruits of industry, of lessening the evils of the saloon and the brothel, he is an utter skeptic as to the possibilities of betterment in the situations. He says these conditions have always existed, and they always will exist. It is only a Utopian visionary who can think otherwise. He is utterly skep- tical and obstructive in the presence of moral propo- sitions because he is the receiver and keeper of the spoils of all disreputable traffics and evil processes. There is no chapter in man's history more discreditable or hopeless than the ease with which in multitudes of cases he has blinded himself to moral distinctions. In the direction in which selfish interests have impelled him he welcomes no moral corrections. As by the magical illusions of some black art, he makes himself believe that black is white, and that evil is good. Mem- 272 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE bers of the Honorable East India Company, amassing wealth from the untrained and unenlightened popula- tions of India, made themselves believe that the intro- duction of Christian missions would be "pernicious, imprudent, useless, harmful, dangerous, profitless, fan- tastic." Why? Doubtless because they had the instinct to perceive that the spirit of missions would prove inimical to business policies which could not bear the light of the Ten Commandments. It is only a little while since when American slave owners searched their Bibles to find divine justification for their institution. The traffic in human flesh and blood was defended, and no doubt sincerely so, from Christian pulpits. The belief in the legitimacy of slavery had such support, that even in Boston William Lloyd Garrison was mobbed and dragged through the streets because he had the courage to utter his indignant protest against what he believed was a national iniquity. There is no traffic, however inherently bad, that yields a revenue of lucre which some men will not be found to espouse and defend. There are many lines of business, entirely legitimate in themselves, which are under nonapprovable management. There are industries so conducted as to give .the impression that their man- agement holds manhood and even life itself as things most cheap, well-nigh as cheap as the very fuel which is cast under the boilers to keep the wheels of these industries moving. Some of these industries employ armies of children, small and tender children, who ought to enjoy the gambol of forest and meadow and open MODERN PROPHETS 273 sunlight, children whose sacred right it is to have guaranteed to them the best advantages which organized society can furnish of school and training for future manhood and citizenship, yet these industries, for the sake of keeping pace in the march of competition, for the sake of paying fat dividends to stockholders, take these children from the sunlight and from the schools, and herd them in stuffy factories, and grind their tender fiber into the products of machine and loom, with the result that before normal middle manhood is reached they are cast out withered and bent with premature age, intellectually and morally dwarfed, physically spent, fit only for the slag-heap of wasted humanity. The average legislature has come to construe this thing as a crime against civilization, and yet it is astound- ing to note how few Christian (!) proprietors have from any moral compunctions of their own decided to dis- continue this kind of childhood employment. There seems in lucrative revenues some fell power both to blind and to bribe the consciences of men who profit by the same. God only knows how much the Church, in many instances, is shorn of moral strength, robbed of its hold upon the affection, respect, and confidence of the poor, because of the domination in its counsels of some man or men whose business life and methods will not stand the scrutiny of the public conscience. It is interesting to note what clear and positive judgment these men have as to the limitations and proprieties which should be observed by the Christian pulpit. The preacher may feel free to roam eternity as far as his imagination may 274 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE bear him. He may discourse at will upon the beauties of heaven and upon all post-mortem delights. But there are certain provinces in this world which he may not enter. Except in glittering generalities, he must not preach either political or business ethics. He dwells so habitually in the realm of abstract meditation, so apart in the quiet of his own unvexed professional world, that he can have no practical appreciation of business life. He would be likely to make an unwise exhibition of himself if he should undertake to expound ethical principles for business conduct. If, before election, he should preach on the duties of citizenship, he would be charged with indiscreet meddling in politics. The truth is that the worshipers of Mammon, both in and out of the Church, desire simply to be let alone. They do not welcome the voice of any true prophet. They are the children of an ancient ancestry who said to the seers, "See not"; and to the prophets, "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." As though thus they could escape a vision of the Holy One of Israel! The message of the modern prophets, like that of their ancient prototypes, is like the driving of a plow- share through all the subterfuges of unethical social, industrial, mercantile, or political life. The mission that crowned the Hebrew prophets with undying glory, that installed them as the peerless moral teachers of all sub- sequent ages, was essentially political in its character. It was a mission of patriotism. Their mission was a trumpet-call to the nation for social justice, for the rights of the poor, for righteousness in all human rela- MODERN PROPHETS 275 tions. With a united insistence that is most impressive when carefully studied, the prophets declare that God does not accept the ostentatious worship, the offerings of prayer and of sacrifices in the sanctuary, of those who are the oppressors of the poor and the friendless, who are defrauders in deals and who suppress the wages of the laborer. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord; I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. . . . Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me. . . . When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." 1 For those who violate judgment between a man and his neighbor, who oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, their membership in the Church is a mockery. God may be insulted by the very gifts which they pile upon his altars. Let them not trust in lying words, saying: "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these." 3 There are those to-day who store up the spoils of violence and robbery in their palaces. But of these houses of rob- bery, the Lord says, "I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end." 1 They that have put burdens upon the poor and have robbed him of his share of the wheat have built to themselves I. t. ii-is Jer. 7- 4. See Amo 3. 10-15. 276 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE houses of hewn stone, and have planted pleasant vine- yards. They have afflicted the just, they are takers of bribes, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. But because of their own evil practices "they hate him that rebuketh in the gate" that is, he who exposes dishonest dealings in the market "and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly." 1 They that swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land to fail, who falsify the balances by deceit, making the selling measure small and the price great, who buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes these, however proud and mighty, cannot hope to escape punishment, for the Lord hath sworn: "Surely I will never forget any of their works." 2 In the commonwealth of Israel, land was the source of common prosperity. Isaiah warns against inordinate private ownership of land. "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field." 3 "Woe unto them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, be- cause it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away; so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage." 4 Not least among the features which excited God's anger against his ancient people were the evil habits of women who lived in luxury and idleness on the fruits of ill-gotten spoils. The prophet likens these women to cattle. "Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy. . . . The Lord 1 See Amos $ 10. * Ibid. 8. 4-7. Isa. 5. 8. * Micah a. i, a. MODERN PROPHETS 277 God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the day shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks." 1 A review of the prophetic eras of Israel and Judah cannot fail strikingly to impress us with the similarity of the moral features of those eras as compared with the present. The same evils which excited the indig- nation of the ancient prophets have sprung up abun- dantly in our own prosperous civilization. If, anciently, there was a providential demand for the prophet, that demand is certainly not less in the present. Both the wealth and the corruptions of Israel and Judah, as compared with those of our own day, were on a very minute scale. Beyond anything dreamed of in ancient Syria our populations are vast, our social civilizations complex, the power of capital incomparable. To this civilization, this civilization of great complexity, in which side by side with superlative excellencies there inhere gigantic wrongs, a new race of prophets has come. These men are expert students of modern world con- ditions. Their task is enormous, but to their aid science has brought every appliance. All that the world's most enlightened advancement can contribute to knowl- edge is at the disposal of these men. All history, lu- minously at their command, contributes its lessons of the past. A world-comprehending information comes daily to their hand. The work of innumerable experts in every department of research, in cyclopedic system, is before them. The sociological conditions of both city and country, as scientifically secured, are their 1 Amot 4. i. fl. 278 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE possession. International and interracial relations in their action and reaction upon world-interests, and all the problems which these relations reveal for world- solution, are now in view as never before. The power of capital, its multiplex uses in civilization, the regal conditions of wealth; the vast army of labor, the prob- lems of poverty, the growing and crying discontents of the poor; the menacing, and seemingly irreconcilable, alienations between capital and labor all these, with all other questions which they involve, are lifted into clear light before the vision of these men. If never before any school of world-students entered upon a mission so large, so difficult, certainly never be- fore did any men enter upon their work with such a wealth of equipment and advantage at their disposal. Who are these modern prophets now facing these numer- ous problems? They are men of high culture, men of vision who have both large insight into and outlook upon life. They are patriots, men with a large love of country. They are lovers of their kind, men who see the larger possibilities in human nature, and who ardently desire to remove obstacles to progress and to promote the conditions through which all men may come to their best. They are independent thinkers. They are not the hired creatures of either corporate or private interests. They are not partisans. Their vision is not blinded by greed. They are unselfish workers for humanity. They have the courage of their convictions. The most fruit- ful source of their ideals is the gospel of Jesus Christ. They exalt Christ himself as the supreme Teacher and MODERN PROPHETS 2?9 Exemplar of the new humanity. They dwell in clear atmospheres of thought and of observation. The moral qualities of the social, industrial, mercantile, and polit- ical worlds are by none more clearly seen and measured than by these. To them in an eminent degree is given to view the evils, the frauds, the injustices, the oppres- sions of society as in the very white light of righteousness. Their indignation is aroused against all monopolistic policies, the execution of which means the depression of the social, intellectual, or moral possibilities of the poor and the defenseless. Their sense of human worth is so supreme, their view of God's impartial love for all his children so clear, that, as in the case of their ancient prototype, the word of the Lord is in their hearts as a burning fire shut up in their bones, so that they cannot refrain from lifting up their voices until the Lord shall have delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers. 1 Such are some of the characteristics of the new prophet. Unawed by the traditions of authority or the conspiracies of evil, he utters as clearly and fearlessly the Lord's rebukes against the failures of the Church as against the iniquities of a despotic plutocracy. The new prophetic voice is no passing phenomenon. More and more this voice is commanding the ear and stirring the heart of the age. The new prophecy will be resisted, stoutly and valiantly so, by all the forces of selfish greed ; but it will persist until it has clarified the vision of so- ciety. There can be no mistaking the signs of the times. A new and divine education is setting into the age. The See Jer. 20. ^-13. 2 8o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE atmosphere of such a movement is irresistible. Like the touch of a spring sun upon the accumulated snow and ice of winter, the stoutest barriers of misguided opinion, and of greed-born prejudices will be dissolved under its power. New standards of public opinion will be lifted up, old and good ideals will be reinforced and new ones enthroned. God's ideal of man will come into the clearer light, and new views of philanthropy and service will have larger sway. If we really believe in the earnestness of God's pur- pose in connection with this human world, it is both our duty and privilege to cherish and to cultivate a prophetic outlook upon the future. God is not lifting his hand from the world. He is touching in innumer- able ways, many of them undiscerned by our vision, this world for its uplift and transformation. We cannot picture too bright a vision of what this world will be when upon its face God shall have completed his own holy city, the New Jerusalem. But as transcending as may be our conception of the future glory toward which God is working, we should not permit ourselves to be blind to the processes of the present. Our own times are astir with the intermingling trends of great moral and spiritual movements. What is it that has begotten at the heart of Protestantism its newborn passion for the saving of human society, for making of this world itself an abode of righteousness? What is this but a divine movement, a movement for the ushering in of Christ's kingdom? Before our very vision, if we have eyes to see, the Spirit of righteousness is subsidizing and inspiring innumerable powers for MODERN PROPHETS 281 the upbuilding of the Kingdom. The Church is not to be arraigned as either a failure or derelict because it does not at first-hand direct all these forces. It is to her glory that she has so inspired the spirit of her Master into civilization that the State and a multitude of organizations have taken over many of the functions and much of the work which formerly were directed by the Church alone. This does not mean that the Church has lost its function, nor that the world is growing less Christian. It simply means that God is multiplying the chariots in which the forces of his kingdom are moving to swifter victory. All movements promotive of civic righteousness, of social purity, of business honesty, of individual justice, of the common rights and brotherhood of man are move- ments in the upbuilding of the Kingdom. Everything done in the way of giving better place, atmosphere, and education to childhood, of furnishing improved physical environment to the home, of putting before the common vision better and more correct ideals for practical living, all are agencies of the Kingdom. The passion for the real things of the Kingdom was never so potent, its constructive processes were never so effective and splen- did as now. The higher ideals for which the Church has stood are being carried forward to-day in a thousand forms of beneficent activity. The kingdom of Christ on earth was never moving forward so visibly, so vigorously, so triumphantly as now. If compelled to admit, as is doubtless the fact, that the Church itself is having a somewhat difficult experience in adjusting its formulas to the knowledge and thought- 282 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE processes of the modern world, that it is confronted with the necessity of critical readaptations of methods to enable it most effectively to meet present-day needs, yet the truth seems to be that one of the profoundest, widest, and most far-reaching revivals in its entire his- tory is now in process. It may be in its present phases a revival of educational ideals, but nevertheless a revival which holds in itself the prophecy of a most fruitful spiritual future. This revival is a Christian Renaissance. Its signif- icance is in its translation of Christianity into terms of modern world thought, in its correlation of Christian truth with the verified scientific thought of the present age. This means that theology is to be shaped by cosmical and biological rather than by governmental and mechanical conceptions. It means, freed from the restraints of hierarchical edicts, liberty for the indi- vidual to pursue his own spiritual life. It means that the coming era of church life will be characterized by a broad hospitality to the quest of truth, that the ruling spirit of the Christian community shall be one of open harmony with scientific methods of thought. It means that the most vital test of orthodoxy, the accepted test, will be where Christ himself placed it that its criterion and credential shall be furnished in character, in the sanity of ethical and intellectual life rather than in a forced subscription to technical dogma. It means that in the organic life of the Church spiritual liberty and intellectual freedom shall be permitted unmolested to walk hand in hand with each other. It means for the Church of the future a richer heritage of thought and MODERN PROPHETS 283 a more perfect and luminous spirituality than any which the sons of God have yet known. Sure as Thy truth shall last, To Zion shall be given The brightest glories earth can yield, And brighter bliss of heaven. "For lo, the days are hastening on, By prophet bards foretold, When with the ever-circling years Comes round the age of gold; When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendors fling, And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing." "This fine old world of ours is but a child, Still in its go-cart." . . . through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. TENNYSON. The tendency of the long past has been toward diversity, that of the longer future will be toward oneness. . . . Thus conditions which for thousands of years tended to diversity have now been superseded by conditions which tend to oneness. It should be observed, further, that the new movement is much more rapid than the old one. Many of the differences which separate men required centuries for their perceptible development. But now every year marks long strides in the tendency to subordinate differences, to emphasize resemblances, to sink the small in the great, and to merge the many in the one. . . . The race has now crossed the great divide of human history, and numberless streams of tendency are all unconsciously moving toward the oneness of the great future. DR. JOSIAH STRONG. High above our confusion and unrest, yet near to each human heart and willing to enter in, stands He to whom the thought and feeling of mankind turns with the same instinctive fidelity with which the needle seeks the pole the changeless Christ. Restate our doctrines as we may, reconstruct our theologies as we will, this age, like every age, be- holds in him the Way to God, the Truth of God, the Life of God lived out among men; this age, like every age, has heard and responded to his call, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest"; this age, like every age, finds access to the Father through the Son. These things no criticism can shake, these certainties no phil- osophy disprove, these facts no science dissolve away. He is the religion which he taught, and while the race of man endures men will turn to the crucified Son of man, not with a grudging "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!" but with the joyful, grateful cry, "My Lord, and my God!" DR. WARSCHAUER. 286 CHAPTER XV PROPHETIC VISTAS DR. D. S. CAIRNS, in his Christianity in the Modern World, in the line of a very able discussion says: "The crying need of our own age in the industrial sphere is the deepening and diffusion of the sense of the Common Good." This sentence holds in itself a whole gospel of industrial reconstruction, of social regeneration. The supreme task of a Christian civilization is to secure the enthronement in human thought of the spirit of brother- hood rather than of dissension, of the cooperative rather than the competitive motive. "The new social order demands a new type of man. The old motives of personal gain must give place to motives of collective enrichment. The ambition to get on must be lost in the nobler ideal to help on. Instead of competition there must be cooperation. Private ad- vancement is to have as its substitute the desire to render public service. In the coming time the individual will realize collective responsibility and will bear his part of the obligation of contributing of his strength to the support of the weak." 1 This ideal is one obviously far from present realization. The industrial world to-day is divided into hostile camps, and is conducted under policies which develop much class hatred. So of the social world. Between its various classes there yawn 1 J. C. C*rtile, 288 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE at present unbridged chasms of distinction and of caste. But in the light of all history nothing can be clearer than that the wounds of society cannot be healed, that the interests of humanity can never be best served, by the continuance of the waning industrial and social policies which now so largely prevail. These policies must be uprooted and displaced before any vision of millennial peace and prosperity can have realization. Do existing facts give any assurance of the new Chris- tian age, the glory of which has filled the vision of our prophets? Or is the vision itself only an iridescent and deceitful dream ? We must not be misled by the rhetoric of a groundless optimism. The problems of humanity are enormous, pressing, and grave beyond measurement. The great problems which confront our present-day Christianity are not simply those which arise from the social, industrial, and civic conditions of civilization. These in themselves are both momentous and baffling. But the supreme problems of the present day are world- problems, and these in the very near future will accent- uate themselves in a measure that could not have been dreamed of even as late as the closing years of the last century. The peoples of the Orient, which to Western civiliza- tions, until very recently, have seemed as in a sleep, are now fully awaking. Their' aeonic sleep is broken. Their waking is ominous for all mankind. They are now in social and political ferment. Japan has already asserted herself as one of the most alert, inventive, and progressive forces in a world-civilization. China is breaking with all the precedents of her immovable past. PROPHETIC VISTAS 289 For the shaping of her new ideals she is inviting the constructive aid of Western Christian education, science, and government. What is true of China is but typical of what is going on among the vast populations of the East. The interests of merchandise and the swiftness and perfection of modern transportation are binding us in ever-closer relations to all these peoples. Only a little time since, and the world's foremost statesmen were declaring that the Orient and the Occident were separated from each other by chasms which could never be bridged. The chasms have already been bridged. The interests of Orient and Occident are vitally and increasingly intermingling. They can never more be put asunder. The Western civilizations have undertaken to erect some fences against the invasion of Oriental popula- tions. There may be both a measure of wisdom and justification in such attempts. But it is not necessary to characterize their ultimate futility. The Oriental peoples will touch us to the vitals. They will adopt both our learning and our methods. They will become our competitors, perhaps overwhelmingly so, in the mercantile and industrial markets of the world. As by an unalterable edict of Almightiness, the East and the West must henceforth live together either in a spirit of large and cooperative service for mankind, or else in a spirit of mutual and racial hostility destructive of the world's peace, prosperity, and righteousness, an atti- tude which would mean an indefinite postponement of all the brighter hopes of humanity. Which shall it be? But to get Christianly closer to the whole question, 2 9 o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE the new relations call for an entire transformation of our racial feelings. The spirit of race-alienations, of caste-feeling and separation, has been one of the things most rife in human history. If we are to deal with this historic situation in a sense that shall be fully Christian, then these racial lines of separation must be demolished. In Saint Paul's ideal Christian community he saw Greek and Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free blended in the dignities and fellowships of a common citizenship. If Saint Paul could so far forget his national and in- herited prejudices as to indorse this view of a Christian democracy, then his vision for us is one for immensely larger application. Our contacts must be with the entire geographical world, and with all of its diverse races. But if all these peoples are the children of God, all the subjects of a divine redemption in Jesus Christ, then we must relate ourselves to them all in the spirit of the common kinship of God's family. Are we, the heirs of a Christian civilization, the bearers of the Chris- tian name, large enough, Christlike enough, to enter loyally into these constructions? In the foregoing reflections, there has been at least suggested something of the largeness and complexity of world-problems, problems not merely impending, but before which the Christian world even now stands face to face. Is Christianity itself large enough, divine enough, to deal successfully, adequately with the incom- prehensible difficulties of these world-conditions? What- ever answer such a question may elicit, it is not amiss to take a passing refuge in a mere negative reflection. Civilization is old enough to have tried out many PROPHETIC VISTAS 291 experiments. It has always been burdened with ills, crippled by limitations, and has incurred many dis- astrous failures. In all its history there has never been wanting a philosophy, a theory of government, or some kind of panacea which has been offered as a cure-all for its ills. All experiments with such remedies have been tried, and have failed. None of them, nor all of them to- gether, have proven equal to producing an ideal civiliza- tion. Christianity, upon the other hand, wherever tried, has never failed. It has been tested by innumerable individuals, and has been proven fully equal to their deepest moral and spiritual needs, both in the toils of life and in the pains of death. It has been largely tested in many provinces of human society, and always only with exalting and ennobling results yielded in just the measure in which its conditions have been fairly tried. In all the world to-day there is no sane adherent of Christianity who does not believe in its entire sufficiency, if its principles may be fairly accepted, to meet the social and moral needs of all mankind. It would seem, then, just now, while the world, like a ship preciously freighted and full-sailed, is crowding toward some new coast, that Christianity is the only pilot which may be confidently trusted to take charge of its destiny. Casting our eyes about the horizon what signs may we discern of the promise and progress of Christian supremacy? I The world of capital carries in itself both the most promising and resisting conditions of moral progress. 292 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE In so far as this world is governed by a selfish and un- scrupulous spirit, it is a world most discouraging to Christian hopes, most heartless in its injustices, most despotic in its power for evil. But, on the other hand, it does not admit of denial that the capitalistic world of the present is increasingly impelled by a spirit of philanthropy. I do not undertake here to discuss pro or con the moral quality of the processes by which given capitalists may have acquired their phenomenal fortunes. Not that this question is not in itself one of very in- trinsic importance. My purpose now, however, is simply and briefly to review some general features in the world of present-day philanthropy. And, first, it may be truthfully said, that in the matter of money for humane causes, the entire past has never produced a period which for magnificent giving has anywhere nearly approached the present time. In the year last closed, 1913, the aggregate large gifts by cit- izens of the United States amounted to more than $302,- 000,000. In this splendid aggregate no gift for less than $10,000 is included. If we could command all the gifts under sums of $10,000 each, these would also make a noble aggregate. Last year there was given outright "to American colleges alone the sum of $32,550,000. It is of interest to note that throughout the country there are not less than 5,397 institutions of a purely benevolent character, representing combined costs in property and endowments of hundreds of millions of dollars. These institutions are devoted to the care of unfortunate and orphaned children, of indigent adults, of the blind and deaf, and for purposes of hospitals and dispensaries. PROPHETIC VISTAS 293 We can little measure the significance of amounts running up into these high figures. They tell an eloquent story. They stand not only for an unmeasured amount of good, of humane service achieved, but they give evidence of a growing conviction among men favored with large capital of personal responsibility for its moral uses. More than this, they tell the story of a genuine pleasure often experienced by men of wealth in bestow- ing benefactions that meet public needs. For our present purpose it matters little who the particular donors may be. The consecration of so large sums of private money to public and philanthropic uses represents a pervasive and growing disposition on the part of capital to make itself a servant of the common good. So far as capital is concerned, this example goes far toward lifting the donor into a special moral class. At any rate, it secures for him an approvable distinction as compared with the capitalist who selfishly gathers, hoards, and invests his wealth without reference to the claims upon him of humanity. The feature of chief significance is that the call for service, a Christian call, which is so distinctively and increasingly voiced in this age, is being heard and heeded at the seats of capital. This is of great import. This is a capitalistic age. Capital is a chief power in all the great enterprises. It builds our cities, our railroads, our steamships, and supports all productive industries. Its investments are making all natural forces tributary to our material civilization, harnessing the very Niagaras for its uses. It is but little wonder that the age has been drunken with the very power of capital. But 294 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE the wielders of this great power must not be drunken men. They of all men need to be men of sobriety, of self-control, of conscientiousness, fused through and through with a sense of high responsibility. They need to be men of vision, sun-crowned men. Just recognition should be gratefully given for such measure of capital as has been consecrated to the com- mon good. The story of such consecration furnishes one of the most inspiring chapters in the moral history of the race. But thus far only the outer fringes on the royal robe of capital have been touched for distinctively benevolent and moral ends. In overwhelming propor- tion capital has thus far sought its investment in ma- terial and selfish schemes. I seek neither to displace nor to underestimate both the legitimacy and the ne- cessity of large investments of capital in purely business enterprises. Such enterprises rightfully absorb the great body of capitalistic investments. Business in itself may be just as legitimate, just as much a divine calling, as the preaching of the gospel. Indeed, what we need to remember, what the business man may not forget, is that the business man is just as morally responsible for the use of his powers as is the minister of the gospel. No implication is to be made against either the invest- ment of human skill and energy or of capital in legit- imate business. But investments are made for profits. And when profits exceed all demands of private business, and of private needs, then in such surplus there is a fund which should be sacredly devoted to moral and philanthropic purposes. There is a voice in the age, a spirit stirring its very PROPHETIC VISTAS 295 atmospheres, which is calling upon capital in general to lift its motives to higher levels, to make great new moral departures. The world needs a generation of capitalists who will be dominated by the conviction that they are simply stewards for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and that it is their chief obligation to bring their gains as endowments for the moral uses of this kingdom. It is only under such a motive that wealth can come to its real nobility. As much as we may admire the skill and power of one who forces nature to lay its treasures in his hand, we can see nothing admirable in the selfish and sordid uses by this same man of such treasures. The capital- istic motive which prompts to the gaining of wealth only that it may increase the personal power of its pos- sessor, only that it may feed his greeds, gratify his pride, minister to his luxuries, and swell his selfish aggrandize- ment is not admirable. On a just moral scale there are few beings less approvable, though he clothe himself in purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously every day, than the man who is the selfish and sordid mo- nopolizer of wealth. On the other hand, there is no nobler type of man than he who, having wealth, has acquired both the art and the delight of so using it as to make it in the highest sense a ministry of moral service. And why should not wealth find its highest satisfac- tions in responding to the bugle call of the age for such moral service? By the courtesy of Professor George A. Coe, of Union Theological Seminary, I am in possession of the following typical and highly suggestive facts. I 296 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE present these facts in Professor Coe's own language as follows : In the spring of 1911 Norman Thomas, of our graduating class, was elected by the faculty to our traveling Fellowship, which provides for two years of foreign study. The Fellowship is awarded each year to the man who has stood highest in the graduating class during his whole three years' course. Mr. Thomas was easily first. He is indeed a man of extraordinary ability, such ability as would bring him success, say, in a professorship. But he declined the Fellowship on the ground that he desired to engage in work among the Italian immigrants in New York city. He is now a supervisor of the Italian churches on the East Side for the Presbyterian Home Mission Board. In 1912 we elected similarly Mr. Kenneth Miller; but he declined the Fellowship on the ground that he desired to enter the work among the immigrants in this country. We then turned to the next man in the class of 1912, Mr. Joel Hayden. After some consideration, Mr. Hayden also declined, and on the same ground. Thereupon, the Presbyterian Home Missionary Society sent both these men abroad for one year to study certain of the European peoples, from whom immigrants are now coming. Miller worked in Bohemia, and Hayden worked in Poland. After a year both of them could speak and preach in the language of the country. Miller is now in New York city, in the employ of the Pres- byterian Home Mission Board, as an assistant in the Bohemian work; and Hayden is in Baltimore in similar work among the Poles. A further set of facts that will interest you concerns the enthusiasm for foreign missions that now prevails among our students, and has pre- vailed, I think, for years. In one of our recent years, I think it was 1911, twenty-five per cent of a large graduating class was already pledged for foreign mission work before graduation day came. Every year we send a large delegation, generally of strong men, into mission work. In fact, I am not seldom embarrassed in my efforts to get men into religious education work in this country by discovering that the strong man upon whom I have fixed my mind had decided to go into the foreign field. An amusing evidence of this interest occurred last year. Some of the stu- dents complained that the foreign work was talked about so much that the home work didn't get its due! A still further item of the same kind concerns the rural work. Several of our men I should say half a dozen have been engaged already in the rural survey work during vacation. Some of them have now entered permanently upon one or another form of rural work as a life calling; and there is so much interest in this problem that there is every reason to expect that a good many of our men will tackle this, which is perhaps the hardest of all our problems. PROPHETIC VISTAS 297 In addition to the foregoing, there has come to my attention almost at the time of this writing, the case of a young preacher, himself a theological graduate, highly cultured, able, exceptionally attractive in his personality, who asks of his superintendent that he may be sent to one of the weakest mission churches in New York city. What do these instances indicate? This: these young men have been dwelling in sensitive moral atmospheres. They have caught a vision of the age. They have heard Christ's call to service. Their hearts have already been touched with the joy of sacrifice. In the splendid light of their inspirations they have been able to translate into their own convictions, choices, and affections the seemingly most difficult tasks, as at once the most divine, the most attractive, and the most rewarding. These young men are disciples from the schools of our modern prophets. They are the knightly spirits of a new age. In character, in culture, in social attractive- ness they are the peers of the most favored sons of wealth. Their moral purposes and consecrations are inspired by the loftiest motives. Their moral insight has not mis- led them. They are making no mistake in their choices. Providence is thrusting them into the vanguard of great moral movements. Is there any reason why the ranks of wealth should not hear the same call of the age, be stirred by the same moral enthusiasms, and bring their tremendous reenforcements to the same work ? The man of wealth holds in his hands great potentialities of ser- vice. It were for such a man a tragic missing of the highest nobility and joy of life if he were so obsessed 298 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE by the demon of greed, avarice, and selfishness as to be shut away from fellowship with the knightly guild of men who have learned that life's divinest rewards rest alone with those who have most entered the secret of Christlike service. The ideal minister must be socially refined, mentally cultured, spiritually inspirational, but he is expected by all, and justly so, to be a ministering servant to the needs of the humblest and the poorest in his parish. The ideal physician must be learned and skilled in his profession, yet it is one of the very ideals of his pro- fession that he must as fully and as conscientiously devote his skill to the care of the sick in the homes of the poor, or even among convicts in prison, as in the homes of privilege. The ideal teacher must be both learned, skillful and gifted, yet the teacher must give of his or her best for the service of all. The teacher who would slight or neglect the most mentally backward or stupidest child in the school would be justly counted unworthy a place in the teaching profession. These are a few illustrations of callings, and many others could be added, which in themselves demand the highest type of character, yet the incumbents of which are expected to give themselves to a life of altruistic service. Why should not the capitalist who employs a thousand men consider these as his providential opportunity, a special call to him for Christlike service? Is there any reason why a man wielding the power of wealth should feel free to excuse himself from rendering to his age the full moral service implicit in that wealth? Measured in the clear light of most sane and sensitive judgment, PROPHETIC VISTAS 299 the rich man who fails to render such service, by the very fact of such failure assigns himself a most un- enviable moral rank. The darkness of his failure is in inverse ratio to the greatness of his neglected oppor- tunity. Is there any reason why, because a man is wealthy, he should excuse himself from the fellowship of consecrations demanded by the highest social and moral enthusiasms of the age? Too many rich men have tried to live selfishly, only to discover too late that their selfishness has been utterly unrewarding. Too many such have given themselves to the revel of luxury, only to awaken in paralysis and helplessness to the dis- covery that the bread and wine of their pleasure have turned to ashes and bitterness. The man of utterly selfish wealth, though he be not physically intemperate, is likely to awaken to the fact that the dream of his avarice has brought him no better reward than the labors of Sisyphus. Dickens's Christmas story of Scrooge is psychologically true to life. He began early to worship a golden idol. The noble aspirations of his youth fell off one by one. until the master-passion, gain, had engrossed him. Into his features were set hard and rigid lines, and upon his face grew the signs of care and avarice. He lived to a hard, grasping, and merciless old age. He was rich. His "name was good upon 'change for anything he chose to put his hand to." But he was oblivious both of the joys and sorrows of others. For him the cheery season of Christmas had no charm. He considered that for his clerk to take a Christmas holiday was like "pick- ing a man's pocket every twenty -fifth of December." 300 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE "If I could work my will," he said, indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should." His old age was loveless, lonely, and joyless. He was a miser, neither giving to the world, nor receiving from it, any ministry of blessedness. There is many a man, rich and loveless, who can never be called back from the bondage of his greed unless by some ghostly miracle, as in the case of Scrooge. This subject cannot be justly discussed without large emphasis of the many princely examples which the age furnishes of chivalrous use of wealth. The consecration of wealth to the common good will be one of the great passions begotten by the new age. The good of, the love of, the joy of giving private wealth for philan- thropic ends will in increasing measure substitute and exorcise grosser and selfish motives in the uses of cap- ital. Happily for the age, happily for the auspices of the Kingdom, signs multiply that a new moral knight- hood is being increasingly recruited from the sons of wealth. My faith is that one of the chief distinguishing marks of the twentieth century will be in the new and vast consecrations of wealth for the reenforcements of Christ's kingdom. A new spirit is coming into the world's thinking, a new light is resting upon human needs and obligations, new ideals are making resistless appeal to the rich and strong for service. In response to the new spirit, the new light, the new ideals, wealth will find its sphere of service and of satisfaction as never before. PROPHETIC VISTAS 301 The prophecy has gone forth, the nurture is in the atmosphere, and the signs are multiplying that already we have entered upon an age which is to be morally resplendent, and not among the least of forces con- tributing to its glory will be the ministry of consecrated wealth. II The deeper moral significance of the labor movement has been much obscured by objectionable features which have been superficial to the movement itself. Labor has fundamentally organized itself for the purpose, first, of protection against the unjust encroachments of selfish capital, and, second, for the purpose of mutual aid and benevolence among its own members. Nothing could be more legitimate, nothing more approvable in itself, than each of these purposes. Labor has suffered from the frequent misfortune of unworthy leadership. It has often lacked in discernment of the better courses to be pursued. Its history has been too often characterized by sporadical outbreaks of mob rule and violence in which outlawry and the spirit of ruthless assassination have played a conspicuous role. These occasional and quite exceptional phenomena have created in the thoughtful public mind a wide prejudice against the spirit of organized labor. By so much labor has suffered a serious injustice at the hands of its own representatives. If, however, we inquire more closely into underlying causes, it must appear that labor cannot be justly charged with greater criminality than capital itself. It is altogether probable that if capital had always dealt equitably, there would never have 302 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE arisen the labor organization. There would have been no necessity for it. That capital and labor to-day are pitted against each other in alien camps is not without deep causes. The recriminations of labor against capital, however bitter, are, in the last analysis, only the practices by labor of lessons taught by capital itself. Capital has shown itself hard, grasping, conscienceless, despotic. Labor, helpless in its presence, has been forced in innumerable instances to the wall. Capital has too often exacted from the weak the largest service for the smallest wage. Without regard to brotherhood, rights, the comforts, the health, or even the lives of workers, capital has often ground the poor under the heel of merciless power. It is in a spirit thus begotten that labor has turned upon capital. It is simply, in its bad moods, striking as it has itself been struck. In the above paragraph I am speaking especially of the demerits of capital. But labor has too often earned for itself the severest censure. When well paid and well treated it has often given slip- shod work, careless and unprofitable service, and has done the least work possible for the largest wages that could be gotten. Labor, in the highest interests of the worker, should be performed in a loyal spirit. A man's sphere of labor is his training school of character. The man who works in the spirit of a time server, who seeks only the day's wage regardless as to whether he has rendered an equivalent value, is living the life of a cheat, is so lending himself to processes of essential dishonesty as to make it impossible for him under such motives to develop an intrinsically noble and trust- PROPHETIC VISTAS 303 worthy character. Labor, however humble in itself, if loyally and dutifully performed, is a service in the in- terests of righteousness. In the moral merits of the conflict capital has no advantage over labor. Capital is better liveried, better fed, is more self-sufficient, and wears externally a better polish; but its spirit has been just as bitter and relent- less as that of labor. On the other hand, the moral advantages, as inhering in the causes of the conflict, are with labor. Capital for the most part has waged a selfish warfare. Labor may have been selfish, but, on the whole, it has fought for its rights. In any event, mingled with its selfishness has been a large spirit of altruism. Its scheme, however imperfectly realized, and however limited of application, has been one of a labor brotherhood, and its spirit one of mutual help- fulness. Organized labor has never en masse committed itself to any atheistic policy. While it has been distrustful of the Church because of the judgment, whether true or false, that the Church is too much dominated by capitalistic influence, it has, as a rule, borne itself in reverential attitude toward Jesus Christ. Organized labor fails of many things greatly to be desired, but at its heart it carries ideals which illuminated and widened would mark it as having close kinship with the kingdom of heaven. In a day of more equitable industrial con- ditions, of more pronounced brotherhood, a day sure to come, the laboring world will be subjects of that kingdom whose Lord was once the Carpenter of Naza- reth. 304 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE III A prophetic word, a word which carries in itself great promise and potency for the future, is "cooperation." Capitalism, at least capitalism in its present exaggerated form, is but a passing phase in civilization. There are most potent reasons why it should be doomed. In its present concentrated form, and with its accelerating aggressiveness, it stands as a menace to the very life of the republic. With mailed front, and with a rapacity that brooks no checks, its recent leading has been straight in the direction of plutocracy. With new shibboleths and under new forms it threatens the displacement of democratic equality by a capitalistic feudalism. The proposition comes too late in history for such a regression in civilization. Plutocracy, when reduced to its last term, is a foe to human liberty, inimical to democ- racy, and can be accorded no place under the standards of highest Christian enlightenment. Its aggressions have awakened the deepest animosities of the present age. Only the blind can fail to see this. The greatest menace of our present civilization is that which arises from the warfare between the oligarchy of wealth and the discontented democracy of production. This is a war- fare which, if its causes are not removed, threatens the very upheaval of society, only on a more terrific and bloody scale, as in the French Revolution. In these days the feeling is rapidly growing that the present order is not, and cannot be, a finality. The conviction is gaining with capitalists, as well as with all others, that in the very fundamental conditions of business there should be provision, and under limits PROPHETIC VISTAS 305 which cannot be finally violated by either capitalistic or laboristic aggression, for a more equitable distribu- tion of opportunities among men. In the present situa- tion both capital and organized labor are resting in false, unjust, and most injurious assumptions. Capital insists that it has an absolute right to administer its resources as it will. This is a wholesale begging of a great moral question. Most of the factors which capital monopolizes spring from natural resources. God, the common Father of all men, is the author of all natural wealth. His children alike have their inalienable rights in such wealth. In the Hebrew theocracy it was fundamental that the land, the source of common support, the real source of all wealth, belonged to the people. And that this common right of use might never be annulled, it was provided that once in so often there should be a redis- tribution of land. It was the capitalistic violation of this law, a viola- tion which led to the oppression of the poor, which in- spired the prophets to utter their fierce philippics of denunciation against the luxurious rich. Precisely the same conditions, only on a vastly exaggerated scale, which drew from the prophets their fiery condemnations, exist in the capitalistic world of to-day. At its heart the boasted absolute ownership of capital is an atheism. What becomes of God's right and of the rights of all God's children in God's own world? On the other hand, labor, especially as expressed in the theories of Socialism, makes the hugely false claim to being the producer of all values. In its widest and most legitimate application, it comes near being true 3 o6 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE that labor is the developer of all mercantile values. But in its more limited application, as denned by the representatives of organized labor, it is very far from true that labor is the exclusive producer of values. Brain has entered fully as largely as brawn into the develop- ment of mercantile values. The inventor who mul- tiplies the working power of man a hundredfold has by his single invention indefinitely multiplied the possi- bilities of labor. Is he not a producer? And is he not entitled to special reward for his benefaction? Then, as an essential factor in production is capital itself. Capital, as directed by somebody, furnishes the appliances and the methods without which the hands of a thousand laborers would be empty and useless. Surely, capital, however owned, is a prime necessity to production. The theory, then, that "labor" is the sole producer of values is fundamentally and viciously wrong. Before capital and labor can meet together on the planes of harmony it is an absolute necessity that both shall abandon their false fortifications. It may be frankly admitted that the conditions of reconciliation between the two forces are not yet fully developed. This is not strange. All good things do not come with cyclonic speed. The most valuable adjustments governing human relations are evolutionary in their development. But, given the premises of God and the world, of divine Sonship and the growing sense of human brotherhood, and there is no room for despair as to the ultimate advent of right human adjustments. The highest ideals now in sight would seem to call for a common basis of interest between capital and PROPHETIC VISTAS 307 labor in their mutual products. This ideal can be realized only under some philosophy of cooperation. A cooperative atmosphere is one favorable to brotherhood. It welds sentiment and effort in a common interest. It is this spirit which holds together and makes effective the great corporations. In them cooperation has shown its power to develop the most gigantic industries known to history. The objection to this kind of cooperation is that it is of the class order. While it deals with in- terests which affect the common welfare, it subsidizes for its own ends all the productive agencies; it finally turns the revenues earned, however immense, into the pockets of the few. The great masses are practically shut away from the benefits of such cooperation. The imperative need is for the creation of cooperative methods broad enough to include all producers. The present history of cooperative developments is not without great significance and promise. This move- ment has more largely characterized England, and the nations of Europe than the United States. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain the cooperative movement includes about 3,000,000 people. Its retail stores sell annually $400,000,000 of goods, while $130,000,000 of goods are created in its manufacturing establishments. 1 The governing rule of this union is that profits earned shall be equitably divided between capitalist, workers, and purchasers. "Germany in 1908 had 24,652 co- operative societies, with 3,658,437 members. Denmark, with a population of only 2,500,000, had about 1,200 retail stores, with 200,000 members, and has developed i Aneurin Williams, Co- Partnership and Profit-Sharing. p. aia. 3 o8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE productive cooperation as no other country has. Basle, with 125,000 inhabitants, had 28,000 cooperative buyers. Since 1908 these figures have grown very much." 1 This cooperative movement is rapidly spreading in France and, indeed, throughout Europe. The principle is so far established as to be beyond experimental stages. Its capacity for the widest appli- cation to world-business may in many and largely im- portant features still await development. But of the essential justice and sanity of the principle there seems little room for doubt. Indeed, many important applica- tions of the cooperative principle have long had practical approval. Our public highways, school systems, gas and waterworks, the postal systems, are illustrative of a common service for the benefit of which the people cheerfully cooperate in the payment of taxes. The number of public-service appliances which might serve common interests and be cooperatively supported by the community seems susceptible of great enlargement. It is evident that wherever this principle may be adopted in the business world it will prove unifying and not competitive; it will draw men together in com- mon interests. It will awaken in all the spirit of a common partnership. It will create around itself an atmosphere of fidelity, of industry and thrift. Its very ideals will put to shame the spirit of shirking and of time-serving qualities which are now a pervasive blight in the laboring world. Above all, it is a principle in sublime harmony with the ideals of Jesus Christ. In its ampleness there is room for the rich and the poor to > Rauschenbusch, Christianizing the Social Order, p. 385. PROPHETIC VISTAS 309 meet together in the genuine feeling that the Lord is the Maker of them all. Let the animosities which now prevail between capital and labor be once removed, and the largest door for the realization of the divine brotherhood of man is wide open. Happily, the signs multiply that the moral education of the age is setting in this direction. IV Kindred to the spirit of cooperation which must wed capital and labor in the bonds of common interests, and of not less significance, is the spirit of federation which is to-day leaguing the Protestant denominations into the unity of a common Christian mission. We have seen how signally this spirit is asserting itself in the interrelations of the great missionary boards. One of the most signal services of missions to the home churches is the enforcement upon the attention of these churches of the supreme importance of Christian unity. The missionary workers scattered among the wide, dense, and darkened paganisms are filled with a heart- hunger for brotherly fellowship. Their very sense of isolation prompts them to support each other in the work and purposes for which they stand in common. A sense of the vast and overwhelming needs of the world, of their own insufficiency in the presence of these needs, forces upon these workers both the fitness and necessity of entering into a holy leagueship with all who in the midst of pagan cults are truly seeking to exalt the name of Christ. In presence of countless heathen whose supreme need is to know Jesus Christ, there comes to these workers a sense of the essential pettiness of the 3io CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE differing views which too often and too long, in the homeland, have separated the denominations. Not in the modern ages has there been witnessed so noble an expression in the interests of Christian unity as that given in the recent World's Missionary Con- ference at Edinburgh. In this Conference was brought together a great interdenominational body with the single purpose of devising cooperative methods for Chris- tianizing the heathen world. The conference was com- posed of exceptionally able and experienced men who in a very inclusive way represented the entire mission work of the Christian world. The great emphasis put upon the necessity of cooperative Christian effort was such as powerfully to impress all that the present is no time for the wasting of Christian energies in fruit- less theological and ecclesiastical controversies. The real spirit of Christianity, the Christianity of Christ, the spirit of its teaching, consecration, and sacrifice, is nowhere more perfectly exemplified than among missionary workers. A concerted and supreme call of these workers is a summons to the home churches to forget their differences and to unite their forces for the salvation of the world. The spirit of federation is working like a leaven among the home mission boards of our own country. Less than three years ago the Home Missions Council in- augurated the "Neglected Fields Survey." Just recently under the united auspices of the home boards a series of two-days conferences, to which were invited all the home mission leaders in every State visited, were held in the two Dakotas, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and PROPHETIC VISTAS 311 Colorado. In these conferences two points were sought, namely, first: "To give State leaders an insight into the large relations and latest developments of the tasks in which they share; and, second, to press home the absolute importance of attacking the home mission prob- lem in the spirit and by the methods of close interdenom- inational cooperation." The prompt and hearty response given at all these conferences to the latter proposition was such as to give evidence that in all these States the "old era of church competition is passing away." The new spirit of federation is one of largest prophecy for Christianity. It is bringing to the churches them- selves a quickening revelation of their vital and essential unity. It is greatly emphasizing the lesson that for the common tasks of Christian work denominational differences need not stand in the way of cooperative effort. It is not clear that the obliteration of denom- inational lines would best serve the interests of Chris- tianity. It is increasingly clear that denominations as such may be so imbued with the larger mission of the Kingdom, so possessed and inspired with the love of Christ, as to prompt them to work together in a sublime unity for the redemption of the world. It is the spirit of such a unity which more than ever before is moving upon the heart of the modern Church. The demand in many fields for efficient administration of Christian work, economic necessities, such division of effort as promises most effective results with least waste of power these, and many kindred considerations, are all pro- motive of a cooperative purpose and effort in Christian service. Instead of moving out on divergent lines of 312 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE sectarianism, the federative spirit is turning the faces of the denominations in common toward Christ, and in this vision they are increasingly discovering that the work which he would have done is one which makes an equal call upon all alike. In this spirit Protestantism is find- ing its true self, is discovering that larger unity and broader catholicity in the strength and coordinations of which it will move out upon new and enlarged missions of moral conquest. V In a previous chapter there has been presented some survey of modern missions. But the significance of missions in their relation to the present and immediate future progress of Christ's kingdom in the earth is an immeasurable quantity. Proceeding from missions, as from a creative source, innumerable and unassessable beneficent influences are moving to the very heart of heathen society. No one can measure the indirect moral values resulting from the spiritual truth as both preached and illustrated in this great work. In Dr. W. F. Oldham's admirable lecture on the "Pros and Cons of Missions" he says: The purer tenets of Christianity, its sublime ethical codes, its high spiritual vision, its teaching of justice and mercy, and its inculcation of the spirit of brotherhood and a fine philanthropy toward all the dis- tressed and sorrow-smitten in life have forcibly impressed the faiths it confronts in all lands; and every one of them has taken on a purer ethical character and is sounding a deeper religious note because of Christianity's presence. The very first effect is to exorcise the cruelties and grosser forms of lust and impurity, that through human weakness have become mixed with the teachings of the ethnic faith. A thousand immoralities and cruelties have fled from the public life of India and China, and are fleeing from the dark stretches of Africa, smitten by the invisible sword, by the aroused human spirit, awakened among all the people by the hearing of the higher law. . . . There is a positive cleansing of public opinion PROPHETIC VISTAS 313 and an openly promulgated code of conduct hitherto unknown a new valuation of man as man and of woman as a partner of man, his sharer in life's burdens and, with him, the crown of creation, and a new soft- ness and tenderness of feeling thrown around childhood. In a word, both in the public mind and in the homes of the people the presence of the Christian missionary and all that he stands for brings new ideas into the social order and a new atmosphere into the home. 1 Christian missions present the boldest, the most com- prehensive, progressive, and prophetic moral program now operative in the world's history. No living seer can forecast the fruits to be realized from this program even while the present century is yet young. VI On the summit of the Andes, and on a line marking the boundary between Chile and Argentina, stands a colossal statue of Christ, and upon its pedestal are carved the words: "Sooner shall these mountains crum- ble into dust than that Chileans and Argentines break the peace, which at the feet of Christ, the Redeemer, they have sworn to maintain." On August 28, 1913, there was dedicated, in the presence of a most distinguished company representing the great nations of the earth, one of the finest public buildings in the world the "PALACE OP PEACE at THE HAGUE." Ten years earlier, Mr. Andrew Carnegie contributed for the establishment of this build- ing $1,500,000. Toward its final completion and embel- lishment nearly all the nations of Europe have made signal contributions. This building is dedicated as the home for the "Permanent Court of Arbitration for the Adjustment of International Disputes." 1 India. Malaysia, and the Philippines. 3 i4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE The heroic statue of the Prince of Peace, standing high above the Andes, and the superb "Palace of Peace" at The Hague, are two significant symbols of great international movements in the interests of peace which more and more are commanding the thought of the modern world. Doubtless a prominent factor in enforc- ing this conception upon the world's thought is the inordinate and oppressive costliness of modern national armaments. The cost of an "armed neutrality" is so great as to threaten the bankruptcy of nations. Treasure by the billions treasure which ought to find investment in sources of common prosperity, treasure adequate to endow all the universities, technical and art schools required by civilization, treasure ample to main- tain all the eleemosynary institutions, hospitals, asylums for the blind and unfortunate, homes for the aged and indigent all this, by systems of national taxation, is being extorted from the sources of legitimate production, from the hands of toilers, for the purpose of maintaining the vastly unproductive, wasteful, destructive, and what some day will be sure to be ranked as barbarous, systems of world militarism. The burdens thus imposed are felt by all nations to be increasingly intolerable. Thus there is forced upon the judgment of sane rulers, and upon the collective thought of mankind, the unescapable necessity of bringing the nations together in such a compact of peace as will rid the world of the exhaustive and ruinous taxation of the present war-footing. The very economical necessities of civilization are thus become the stern schoolmaster to force the nations PROPHETIC VISTAS 315 toward a compact of peace. Certain it is that a most phenomenal interest in the world's peace has become awakened in modern thought. In the last fifteen years considerably more than one hundred and fifty arbitration treaties have been made effective in the settlement of disputes as between nations. Peace societies in large numbers have been organized throughout Christendom. The Hague Court of Arbitration for the adjustment of international disputes, now participated in by forty-two nations, has become an established institution. Under its auspices there have already been assembled two great International Congresses, which, in the discussion of fundamental principles, have reached large agreements in the direction of general peace as between nations. It is planned that a Third International Congress shall meet at The Hague in the near future. "An International Peace Plan" as promulgated by President Wilson of the United States, up to October n, 1913, had received the acceptance of twenty-nine coun- tries, with the probability that the signatures of many other nations would be added to the list. There is now in process, on both sides of the ocean, an enthusiastic celebration of a completed century of peace between the two great Anglo-Saxon nations England and America. Thus: "Two Empires by the sea, Two nations great and free, One anthem raise, One race of ancient fame, One tongue, one faith we claim, One God whose glorious name We love and praise." 316 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE The entire trend of international law, defining and guaranteeing the mutual rights of nations, is in the di- rection of universal and permanent peace. Modern con- ditions are rapidly bringing to realization the fact that the whole world is bound together by the ties of common mercantile, educational, and industrial interests. War is a relentless foe to these interests. The only philosophy which fits the needs of the growing modern world is that of brotherhood, and not of alienation and strife. Thus there has come into modern world thought, like the lift of a tidal wave, the recognized and imperative need for the inauguration of a reign of peace, not only as between nations, but as preparatory everywhere for the realization of a real brotherhood among men. This movement will be a growing leaven in the world's con- victions. It can be classed only as a movement of the Kingdom. It is a movement which will minister largely to the fulfillment of that prophecy of peace on earth and good will among men which uttered itself in the angelic song above the birth scene of Him who came into the world as the "PRINCE OF PEACE." VII If it is true, as is often said, that the philosophy of to-day will rule the faith of to-morrow, then, in the philosophical thinking of the present there are not a few auspicious promises for a regal spiritual future. In philosophy there is a marked reaction from the materialism of a generation ago. In present philosoph- ical thought may inhere a large preparation for the incoming of a new spiritual era. PROPHETIC VISTAS 317 That recent philosophy has given large room in its discussions to, and that its own positions have been much influenced by, the spiritual claims of religion, cannot be denied. William James would hardly be claimed as an advocate of the orthodox Christian faith, but his pragmatic philosophy gives large justification to the claims of religious experience. One can hardly read Dr. Fairbairn's great work, The Philosophy of The Christian Religion, without concluding that he has not only given a masterful philosophical setting to the phenomena of Christianity, but that he has as well given to Christianity a most indubitable place as a divine and spiritual religion. Borden P. Bowne, while yet a very young man, came conspicuously to notice by his brilliant refutation of a materialistic philosophy. He holds secure historic rank with the great philosophers of the age. He was a foremost expounder of a theistic and spiritual view of the universe. Personally he found rest of mind and heart nowhere as in his faith in Jesus Christ. Among living philosophers Rudolf Eucken easily holds a first rank. He has searched history and the human soul with a profound insight. His philosophy is an insistence upon the rightful supremacy of the spiritual in the universe. The loftiest life, indeed the only true life, of man must come from the normal development of his spiritual nature. If Eucken had committed him- self more definitely to the Christian view of life, this, from a distinctive Christian standpoint, would have been more satisfactory. But his philosophy at center is not inharmonious with Christianity. No more withering ex- 3 i8 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE posure of the insufficiency and unworthiness of the materialistic life, no more brilliant summons to find the higher life through spiritual emancipations, can be heard than voice themselves in Eucken's philosophy. In the world's thought it may be that such as Fair- bairn, Bowne, and Eucken are the philosophical fore- runners of a near-coming and transforming spiritual age. When we predict that Christianity is to become the universal and final religion, we must remember two facts: first, the continuous growth of the spiritual educa- tion of the race; second, the divine adaptiveness of Christianity to the growing knowledge and needs of mankind. The Christianity of to-day does not mean any literal conformity to a dogmatic code of morals as announced either in the second or the fifteenth cen- tury, or indeed at any time in the past. The prin- ciples announced by Jesus Christ are continually expand- ing themselves in adaptation to the world's new knowl- edge and necessitated thinking. Christian thought is continuously enriching itself by its appropriation and assimilation of new discoveries of truth. The nations and the ages have all and always been in possession of valuable truths, of ideas and moral ideals which did not originate in Palestine in the days of Christ. The infinite Spirit of Truth has touched the heart and the intellect of men in all ages and in all races. It is the glory of Christianity, indeed one of the most con- vincing tests of its divinity, that it vitally appropriates all true spiritual ideals, that it constantly enriches its own thought by the absorption into itself of all truth-values- Mr. Charles Henry Dickinson has recently published PROPHETIC VISTAS 319 a brilliant and thought-provoking book, The Christian Reconstruction of Modern Life, in which he emphasizes the great indebtedness of modern civilization to Hellenic thought. In this discussion he luminously sets forth a large field of fact and truth. I prefer, however, to think of the Spirit of Christianity as the primal inspira- tion of the race. When Christianity appropriates, as it has done, the best ideals in the Hellenic and Roman civilizations, I think of it as simply taking over and putting its imprint upon that which is by divine right its own. And this process will indefinitely continue. The Spirit of Truth is abroad in the world, and is still taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto men. Christianity has as yet by no means been fully translated into human thought. In just the measure in which the Spirit of Christianity shall dominate the heart and conduct of society, in that measure will a spiritual philosophy dominate human thinking. Christianity is God's supreme appeal to the deepest and most inalienable instincts of human nature. But this appeal is primarily made neither to man's sensuous nor to his intellectual nature. An entire age may take a swing toward materialism, may seek to find its completest satisfactions in physical enjoyment, in the pleasures of sense; or, in a mood which deifies the intellect, may seek its supreme good in realms ex- plored solely by the rational faculties. But Christianity makes its supreme quest and yields its highest benefits in neither of these realms. It teaches that man's sensual nature is something to be held under authority as a bond-servant, and it no more reveals itself to the pride 3 2o CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE of intellect than do the beauties of a sunrise to a blind Samson. And all history confirms this attitude of Christianity as one of divine wisdom. Man in his deepest being is far more a spirit than an animal, far more a divinity ^han simply a logician. It is to the divine and wor- shipful in man that Christianity makes its final appeal. Every historical experiment with a purely sensual philos- ophy has only led its age to a Circe's banquet. Wher- ever intellectualism has been substituted for a spiritual religion the result has been dearth and barrenness to the common soul. Man is too fundamentally a spiritual being ever to find complete or final satisfactions in realms either distinctively material or mental. How- ever diverted from the spiritual an age may be tem- porarily, suck condition cannot indefinitely continue. In sheer revolt against the husks and hunger of its starved Hfe, the human soul will in time assert its quest for fellowships and satisfactions which are spiritual. Christianity has already displaced great paganisms, has purged civilization of many evils. But it is still in its buoyant youth. While its philosophy was never so luminously known nor so widely accepted as to-day, yet its larger mission of conquest is in the future. It will increasingly clothe itself with knowledge, with light, and with power, until it shall have won for itself the spiritual supremacy of the race. VIII Any adequate view of present moral world movements must give due space to the temperance reform. No PROPHETIC VISTAS 321 scourge has more fearfully ravaged human welfare than the evils of intemperance. There can be no ideal civilization in which the liquor traffic shall coexist. It is from first to last, and in all its phases, a foe to society. There is worldwide and rapidly growing conviction that this traffic is an evil which must be dealt with and resisted by a union of all good forces. Every civil- ized nation in the world is moving, in one form or another, against the traffic in strong drink either to restrict its power or to abolish it altogether. In the American republic, nine States have adopted constitutional prohibition both of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor thus outlawing the traffic. The proposition of constitutional amendments embody- ing the same ends is in process of submission to popular vote in several other States. More than forty million of the peoples of the republic are living in territory which under local option has been voted as "dry." In the State of Kentucky, which has been relatively one of the leading producers of whisky, there is a pop- ular uprising which not only promises overwhelmingly to prohibit the sale of liquors, but which threatens to put all the distilleries out of commission. The forces of temperance in general were never so effective, and never so united as now. They have found their work- ing unity not so much by a merging of theories as by the facing of a common foe. A great reenforcement to temperance movements is the growing conviction in the medical profession that alcohol has little or no value even as a medicine. The literature of temperance education was never so voluminous nor so scientifically 322 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE convincing as now. A systematic campaign is being efficiently conducted in connection with large sections of public-school instruction. There is a growing coalescence of all good forces, which with more than the power of an oath-bound crusade is working toward the sure destruction of the traffic in drink. In the United States as a whole the liquor interests are in retreat. They have seen the handwriting of doom upon their very banqueting walls. An infallible indication of the decreasing confidence and the panicky feeling of the promoters of the traffic in the stability and security of their cause would seem to be evidenced in the market quotations of their stocks and bonds. The stocks of the distilleries and brewing combinations have declined by the amount of fifty per cent in the last three years. The Distillers' Securities Corporation, a corporation supposed to have much the same repre- sentative relation to the distilling interests as the Amer- ican Tobacco Company to the general tobacco industry, has put forth a large fundamental issue of five per cent bonds. At the present writing these bonds are quoted around sixty-four cents on a dollar. Surely, not a very optimistic price for a bond underlying so great vested interests! IX The strength and growth of certain great moral insti- tutions merit more than a passing notice. The Sunday school, devoted to the biblical education and Christian training of the young, represents a movement of most commanding significance. The total number of teachers and scholars enrolled in the Protestant Sunday schools PROPHETIC VISTAS 323 of the world is nearly, or quite, 29,000,000. The Sunday school enrollment in the Methodist Episcopal Church alone is 4,227,698; and if the same rate of increase as has resulted in the last three years should continue unbroken, there would be an enrollment of more than 10,000,000 in the year 1926. The Young Men's Christian Association is widely established throughout the world. There were at the last report 9,105 of these Associations distributed over the globe. These Associations employ 3,853 paid secre- taries and other officials at an annual cost of $13,196,809. In their various biblical, religious, and physical edu- cational departments they are rendering an inestimable service. The world's Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, working in the interests largely of young women, is kindred in mission to the Young Men's Christian Association work. Affiliated with this movement are now eighteen distinct national associations, all of them moving into enlarging usefulness. The Salvation Army of the world and the Volunteers of America represent a movement of religious activity and usefulness, mostly among the poor, which it is impossible to put into statistical measurement, and which in the exhibition of Christian devotion and service transcends all praise. Christian societies of various kinds, inclusive of the great Bible and tract societies of the world, all devoted to high Christian ends, are too numerous for specific mention. They all have a mission and place in the world-program of the Kingdom. I have attempted in this chapter to indicate a few, 3 2 4 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE only a few, of the working factors operative in the con- structive moral program of present-day Christianity. In this program appear large retrieving forces. The col- lective Church is giving great study to the correction of mistakes, to revision of its methods and policies. In the spirit of prophetic outlook it is girding itself with mightier unities, with larger knowledge, with more reliance on prayer, with deeper consecrations, and .with profounder purpose for its world-tasks. In the present conditions there is not only large promise that it will regain its lost ground, but that with quickened pace_jt_ will move forward to new and superlative victories. Man is to-day not only traversing continents and oceans at express speed, but he is in command of electric and instant knowledge of all current human movements throughout the world. The processes of world-educa- tion are now rapid and pervasive as never before. The public conscience was never so sensitive as now to moral > issues. Christianity never had so many working allies in the field. "The secular press is preaching righteous- ness, the editors and the authors are teaching the prin- ciples of Christ's kingdom, the politicians are putting them into their platforms." 1 Why should there not be such a rising of Christian interest that a nation shall be born in a day ? In the meantime the world's humanity, in the light of all its history, has no hope save in the gospel of Jesus Christ. > James R. Howerton, The Church and Social Reforms, p. 136. THE ABIDING CHURCH And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. MATTHEW 16. 18. The ideal Church, like the ideal government, does not exist. Only particular churches exist; and no one of these is the Church more than any other. They are all the Church of Christ in so far, and only in so far, as they have his spirit and do his work; and they derive all their value and authority from their demonstrated efficiency in building up and maintaining the spiritual life of men. The Kingdom is one; church organizations are many, and their value lies in their furtherance of the Kingdom. A body of believers suddenly transplanted to some uninhabited land, without priest or bishop, could found as true a Church as ever existed, if the spirit of God were among them. DR. BORDEN PARKER BOWNE. The mission of the Church will continue as long as the world lasts. It will not be so much institutional as inspirational. It will maintain holy altars. It will organize noble services of worship. It will teach reverence by proclaiming the great Presence. It will not perform all the functions even of a holy democracy, but it will furnish men the mood of democrats by showing them that they cannot love God unless they love their brother also. Forms of words, methods of ritual, days and archi- tecture may change, but the transcendent man needs to nourish his soul on food that is not bread alone, and not less but more in the days to come will men see that worship with all that it implies is the cure for earth's sin and sorrow, and that the Church, ever renewing herself by fresh in- carnations of the spirit of her Founder, remains the mother of human greatness. DR. SAMUEL GEORGE SMITH. 326 CHAPTER XVI THE ABIDING CHURCH A CHIEF function of Christianity is to produce Christ- like men. For this result it provides both agencies and nurture. Among agencies the Church has been and will remain the very chief. It cannot be too clearly understood that the Church is not Christianity. Nor is it synonymous with the Kingdom. In Christ's teach- ing he put all emphasis upon the Kingdom. It was ever in the foreground of his thought. He did, indeed, give an important place to the distinctive idea of the Church. But this was far less frequent of expression, far less of emphasis, than the place and importance which he assigned to the Kingdom. No sufficient analysis can be given to Christ's relative thought of the Kingdom and the Church which will not yield the conclusion that with him the Kingdom was the all-inclusive end and aim of the gospel which he preached. To this end, the Church, however im- portant, however indispensable in itself, was simply an agency. In later time, indeed as early as in the period of apostolic teaching, the "Church" rather than the "Kingdom" was the term of more popular Chris- tian use. Why this substitution may not perhaps be altogether historically clear. The very term "Kingdom," if it had been one of common proclamation, might have subjected the early Christian teachers to peril from 327 328 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE imperial persecution. Roman imperial thought would refuse to understand the Christian import of the term, and it would be intolerant of the conception of a Chris- tian imperium in imperio. Another reason for the popular adoption of the term "Church" might have grown out of the practical lim- itations of early apostolical work. Saint Paul, for in- stance, laid great emphasis upon the "Church." Nearly all of his epistles were written to individual churches. Practically nearly all the contributions of the apostles toward the Kingdom were embraced in the organiza- tion and establishment here and there of individual Christian societies. The Christian societies (churches) were the foundation stones necessary to be laid in order to the after-structure of the Kingdom itself. These early churches were the nuclei, the fountains of in- fluence, the schools of nurture, whence the leaven of Christian ideals and forces was to work its general way into civilization. For Saint Paul, as for his illustrious compeers, the founding, the training and nurture of individual churches, became an absorbing lifework. This was the immediate and providentially assigned work given to them as builders of the Kingdom. It can be no wonder that the churches as such filled both their heart and their vision. But all this harmonizes perfectly with the assumption that the Kingdom was the larger end which these churches as subsidiary agencies were to serve. In contrast with Christ's idealism of the Kingdom, the Church, in its historic developments, has always proven an imperfect vehicle of Christianity. THE ABIDING CHURCH 329 Christ's conception of the Kingdom was a realm of moral forces, a society of good will and of benevolent activities, one of human brotherhood, of unselfishness, a realm under whose standards spirit should be of more value than substance, men of more value than machinery ; in which God, and worship, and the human soul should be held as facts of transcendent significance and worth. Christ's kingdom is one of perfect ideals. It is dom- inantly spiritual in conception. It is a kingdom of righteousness. Its law is the divine will. Its ideals have no space for unethical motives or practices. Its love and helpfulness are as broad as the Fatherhood of God, and reach to the last need of the weakest and most helpless of the human brotherhood. Its spirit will not quench the smoking flax of moral desire, nor break any bruised reed of righteous aspiration. Its citizenship is of all races. To use a classification of Dr. Whedon, wherever in Christian or in heathen lands, one has "the spirit of faith and the purpose of right- eousness," whatever else his knowledge, or lack of knowl- edge, there is a citizen of the Kingdom. Christ knows all human limitations, whether from heredity, from en- vironment, from limited capacity, or from poverty of opportunity. But he puts before all men ideals born of heaven, and not of earth. And any man, whatever his lack of knowledge, who, according to his light, conscientiously puts his face toward the good, and who seeks to put evil behind him, is a citizen of the Kingdom. The Church being a working organization of human forces, has never in its practical realizations been either as lofty, as broad, as helpful or as holy as are Christ's 330 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ideals of the Kingdom. The Church has often put organization before life, creed before spirit, its orthodoxies before character. Times without number, in its mis- taken judgments, it has construed the nonessential into the order of the vital, has instituted inquisitions against the pure and good, and has persecuted the noblest dis- ciples of truth. The ideals of the Kingdom are always perfect. The achievements of the Church have oftentimes been most sadly defective. Judged by the standards of the King- dom, many are in its citizenship who are not in the membership of the Church; and many are formally enrolled in the membership of the Church who are not really citizens of the Kingdom. The Church has wrought throughout the Christian centuries. In civilization it has laid broad and deep the foundations of Christianity. On the whole, it has been in the world the most fruitful source of lofty ideals, the chief educator in morals, the foremost promoter of righteousness. It has inspired civilization with its noblest motives and purposes, has begotten increasingly in the recent ages the most humane thought and most gra- cious philanthropic ministry, and, as a very breath of heaven, it has carried an atmosphere of sweetness and of helpfulness into the social and industrial thought of the times. It has begotten a numerous progeny of ideals and forces which have gone forth from its portals to be in fields, even wider than its own, the working evangels of the Kingdom for all the world. The mission of the Church, in preparing for the coming of the world-Kingdom, has been vast and vital beyond THE ABIDING CHURCH 33 i all measurement. But the great revival of the present age is one of the Kingdom rather than of the Church. As in the early Christian ages the immediate mission and conception of the Church put the distinctive and larger idea of the Kingdom into the background, so in this later age, after centuries of preparation, in the fullness of time, the Kingdom, a fact far larger than the Church, is coming to its own in Christian thought. The signs of the coming of the Kingdom are sentineled visibly, as never before, clear around the horizon of the broadest and most far-seeing Christian thinking. The belated sleeper has but to brush the night dews from his eyelashes to discover that the mountain tops are agleam with the harbingers of coming day. A question of paramount interest, one which the remaining discussion of this chapter will seek partially to answer, is : What is to be the future relation of the Church to the wider movement of the incoming King- dom? In the very nature of the case the Church must stand central and regnant among the Kingdom-forces. The Church as an institution grows out of the reli- gious necessities of human nature. As in society and in government organization is a necessity to protect and to promote the social interests of the community and to give a collective value to the institutions of the State, so Christianity can discharge its social and moral mis- sion to the world most efficiently and only through organization. This organization is the Church. As in the social world the individual comes to his largest influence in and through the social organism, so in the religious life the individual worker can realize his largest 332 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE influence and usefulness only as he works in and through organized agencies. This is not to say that one might not be a Christian outside of an organization. But it would be safe to say that such a person is, if at all, a Christian because of influences which have reached him through organized Christianity. The government of the State acquires its ability to create its institutions of popular education, its police systems, and its various agencies of public service, through the aggregated life and support of the body of citizens. So Christianity institutes its schools, its presses, its agencies of philanthropic service, its ministries of spiritual nurture, through, and in the strength of, religious organizations. The supreme and indispensable human agency for the bringing of Christ's kingdom in the earth is regener- ated individual lives. The Church, and the Christian home nurtured in the atmosphere of the Church, must ever remain the chief sources for the begetting and developing of Christianized characters. No other agen- cies will ever substitute these twin and creative sources. For the highest efficiency of the learned professions and of the technical arts, it has been found an increas- ing necessity to establish special training schools. These schools must be equipped with every appliance of ad- vanced science, and must be under the direction of highest skill. Such schools are contributing immeasurably to the advancement and perfection of the useful arts. If Christianity has a mission of supreme interest to mankind, then this mission must be studied and pro- claimed to the world through special agencies ordained THE ABIDING CHURCH 333 and adapted for this high function. What in the lesser world of the learned professions and the skilled arts the training schools are, the Church is and must remain in relation to the imperative teaching and work of Chris- tianity. As no other agency the Church is ordained and endowed as the supreme and authoritative teacher of the world in all high matters of spiritual truth. From its schools will go forth those who are to be the peer- less expositors and interpreters of God's revelation to men. From the training schools of the Church will be continuously recruited the ranks of those best fitted for moral leadership in the Kingdom itself, the inspired prophets of the new and growing moral age. Think of the superlative truths with which it is the distinctive mission of the Church at first-hand to deal. i. The Truth about God. God is the supreme fact of the universe. In human vocabulary there is the term "atheist." An atheist, if such there really be, is one who believes in the non-existence of God. For all practical consideration of the question, he is a negligible quantity. The overwhelming and historic conviction of the race testifies to the Being of_God. This testimony receives most rational ratification from the sanest and profoundest thinkers. It is a testimony which roots itself in the deepest instincts of mankind. It may be said that a sense of God is primal in human nature. The mood of agnosticism toward the idea of God does not, rationally considered, furnish so great ground for wonderment as does that of atheism. Agnosticism does not deny the fact. It simply does not know, and, therefore, finds no sufficient ground for intelligent belief. 334 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE The intellectual environment of an agnostic has to be considered. He may be entirely honest in purpose and not undevout of spirit. A review of the religions of history, while giving abundant proof that the conviction of supreme and over-ruling divinity, or divinities, has been well-nigh universal, will also show that this con- viction has clothed itself in a great variety of forms, from the crudest fetishism and the grossest polytheism up to the loftiest monotheism. The sense of divinity has been universally active in the human breast. Vision and knowledge as to the real character and attributes of God have been most sadly lacking in the human world. True knowledge of God is dependent upon revelation. The most perfect revelation which even God could give of himself is limited in its effect by the receptive and appropriative capacity of the mind to whom the revela- tion is addressed. Hence God's method in revelation has proceeded from simple and rudimentary beginnings, advancing toward its fullness of expression by processes of intellectual and moral education of the race. In the Bible itself, as chronologically traced, there is a well-nigh indescribable progress from the first crude conceptions of monotheism to the culminating revela- tion in Christ Jesus. The process of God's unfolding is still, and will ever continue to be, active. The ex- panding moral sense and the growing moral vision of the race are ever perceiving and appropriating an enlarg- ing knowledge of God's true character and purposes; and this process will ever continue. While God as Creator has implanted universally in THE ABIDING CHURCH 335 the human mind a sense of himself, it remains true that the Bible alone furnishes the supreme record of his moral and spiritual revelation of himself to mankind. In this record God is God alone. He is the sole Creator and supreme Sovereign of the universe. He upholds the physical systems by the might of his omnipotence. He directs them by the power of an unerring will. But the real glory of God's sovereignty is in the moral uni- verse, a universe compared with which all the physical immensities are but as the staging and scaffolding to the rising cathedral. God's supreme glory is in his moral attributes. He is not only all-powerful and all- knowing; but he is all-holy and perfectly righteous. His holiness and righteousness are equaled only by his love. God's supreme purpose is to people the moral universe with children begotten, nurtured, or reclaimed, into his own moral likeness. In this conception there is room for majestic expansiveness of idea, of illimitable outreach for the moral imagination. In thinking about God in his relation to the larger physical universe, it would be fatuous either to ignore or to deny the infinite shrouding of mystery that lies over the entire question. Human reason is staggered at the thought of the physical immensities. It often shrinks from accepting all the implications involved in the monotheistic sovereignty of the universe. It thinks of man peopling his sand-grain of a world in the infinite spaces, and it does not seem probable that the Ruler of infinite systems can give himself much concern over man's tiny citizenship. Probably the real significance of this mental tempta- 336 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE tion, a temptation quite common to the human reason, is in the proof it furnishes of the real infantile character as yet of the human mind. This type of reasoning under- estimates both the capacity of God and the human potentialities. God, just because he is the Infinite, can guide the outermost physical universe, and at the same time put over his tiniest child the brooding care and nurture of his love. As for man, his dwelling place in the universe may be remote and his playground small, but if he be God's child, he carries in himself the po- tency of values which have and can have no equivalent in all the physical spaces. This is not a field in which any blatant skepticism can even appear respectable. Taking no advantage of what to many would seem only reasonable assumptions of religious faith, it is safe to say that in discussing the question of God and the universe no skeptical philosophy has been able to suggest any more rational view than that set forth in the Christian-theistic conception. There is evidently some single and uniform sov- ereignty everywhere regnant throughout the physical universe. As far as the human reason can follow the path of light, it finds not only all suns and systems composed of common substances, but it finds all the families of worlds yielding to common laws, to the sway of a common scepter. There may be something in all this to excite in the human breast a sense of profound wonder. But it should not the less beget a sense of profound reverence. A materialistic skepticism furnishes no satisfactory theory of the universe. But a material- istic skepticism is not to-day of even good repute. A THE ABIDING CHURCH 337 spiritual philosophy is at the fore in the world's best thinking. The God of Christianity is big enough for the job of directing the physical universe, and at present there are no pretenders in all the field that can make any respectable challenge of or show of rivalry against his supremacy. But when, as best we may, we have explored all outer- most fields, our chief and well-nigh our only interest in God is in his relations to our human world. Here our most interested and most searching questions are answered in Jesus Christ. It was Christ's special mis- sion to reveal God to men. Indeed, in his own person, in his character, his teachings, his dispositions, his mo- tives, his services, his sacrifices, he was the living transla- tion to the human heart and thought of God's disposi- tions and relations toward humanity. Christ reveals God as a divine Father to all the children of men. He is the God of an ever-watchful and loving providence, a providence so minute in its thought of us that it fails not to number the very hairs of our heads. Christ's revelation of God makes him a Being not less sovereign, not less holy, not less intolerant of sin, but a Being underneath whose robes of justice, and at the very heart of whose love there dwell a spirit of for- giveness for his sinning children, a spirit of sacrifice that will stop at no costs for the winning to reconcilia- tion of those who have alienated themselves from his love. Such are some of the qualities of God as set forth in Christ's revelation. In the very measure in which these questions are apprehended will it be seen that a knowl- edge of God, a knowledge of his will and purposes 338 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE toward mankind, is a question of supreme human im- port. No subjects should so fully challenge human interest and study as a right understanding of these truths. In a previous chapter I have dwelt specifically upon some of the great truths for which the historic Church has stood. In this relation I only purpose to emphasize the indispensable mission of the Church in enforcing attention to these truths and in keeping them ever alive in human thought and conviction. The funda- mental truths of Christianity have their source in God. They, of all truths, are most vitally related to human welfare and destiny. The Church is God's ordained agency for the exposition and proclamation of these truths to the ages. 2. Calvary. It is not needful here to attempt a defi- nite theory or philosophy of Calvary. Nothing can be clearer than that the whole enacted and indescribable tragedy was something necessitated on account of sin. In a series of divine movements, all concentrated upon man's salvation from sin, the cross was a supreme man- ifestation. The cross will ever stand in human history as the superlative object lesson of God's love for man. Whatever else it may have meant, it would seem that even God himself could give no more vivid or impressive demonstration to human view of the divine earnest- ness in seeking man's redemption from the consequences of sin than is furnished in the tragedy of Calvary. This one measureless sacrifice carries with it the pledge that all divine resources, if needs be, are sub- ject to requisition in order to effect man's reconciliation THE ABIDING CHURCH 339 to God. Calvary is God's bond that he will do all divinely possible to save his human child. If after Calvary any soul is lost, it will be because such soul insists on using its sovereign decision for self-destruction. I do not tarry to discuss the fact of man's sinfulness. The human sense of sin is universal. The fact of sin is the tragedy of the race. All history asserts man's helplessness of self-emancipation from its bondage. His only salvation is in divinely proffered help. It will always remain one of the chief functions and obliga- tions of the Church to herald to the world an awaken- ing and alarming message in exposure of sin; always its high function to direct human thought to Calvary, where may be seen God's most impressive revelation of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. 3. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the continuous Teacher and Inspirer of the Church. From the char- acter and teachings of Christ he is ever unfolding new meaning and enlarging spiritual application for the studious and devout seekers after truth. The Holy Spirit is God working in all the processes of spiritual enlightenment and moral growth. He is preparing the hearts of men and of civilizations for the final coming of Christ's kingdom. In the field of the Spirit's work there is room for exhaustless study, and in the inter- pretation of that work there is an infinite wealth of material for Christian teaching. The Spirit-inspired Church must ever hold in the world the distinctive function of translating the mind of the Spirit to the thoughts of men. 4. Christian Living. The Church must remain a chief 340 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE training school for practical Christian living. Saint Paul had a habit of crowding into his epistles many precepts for the Christian life. He discoursed upon the relations of husbands and wives, of parents and chil- dren, of masters and servants. So the Church is to be the expounder of Christianity in its application to the practical everyday needs and life of its subjects. It is its teaching function and responsibility to give a rational construction of the uses of prayer, to expound the offices of faith in the Christian life, to impress upon all the necessity and values of ethical living. The Church should be a herald for high ideals of honor and equity in business life. It should be a clear and forcible expounder of the high moralities which should rule in the home, in society, and in politics. It should impress upon all men the serious gravity of living, the real stewardship of life, the Christlike lesson that life's noblest ends can be realized only in a spirit of service and helpfulness to the world. The Church should lay a full and cheering emphasis upon the optimisms of the Christian faith. When Saint Paul was in the Roman prison under sentence of death he wrote to the Philippian church, declaring his own joy that he was counted worthy to be made an offering in their behalf. His position would not seem to be conducive to joy, but in this very epistle he repeats over and over the Christian privilege of rejoicing. Among his closing words are these: "Rejoice in the Lord; and again I say, rejoice." Christianity comes with a great wealth of cheer, of hope, of spiritual uplifting to the world's burden-bearers, to the weary, the weak, and the depressed. THE ABIDING CHURCH 34 i The life of the Church ought always to be buoyant and songful in the joy of Christian inspirations. It owes this constant attitude to the wayworn pilgrims whose feet it is pointing to the gateways of the blessed life. Christianity does not promise to its subjects exemption from toil, or trial, or even sorrow. But it does promise to every obedient disciple, whatever his earthly lot, sus- taining grace in the full measure of his needs. It should not be a chief aim for the Christian to pray for deliv- erance from trial. The good God may be preparing the best possible things for us in the very processes of our trials. The diamond receives its finest polish for the king's diadem by the most merciless grinding upon the lapidary's stone. So the Word tells us that they who shall rank most conspicuously among the finally glorified, those who shall stand nearest the throne, are they who shall have come up through great tribulation. There is a distinctive mission which it is difficult to see how any other agency than the Church can ever as fittingly discharge. This is a ministry to the sick and to the bereaved. When people are old or sick, and are far down the slopes toward the great divide, they need consolations other than any which are earth-born. It is a blessed thing in these closing stages of the journey to receive from sympathetic hearts and skillful lips divine consolations. And if when are hushed "the last low whispers of the dying" there be no messenger from heaven to the smitten living, how sad and forlorn the situation! It is in life's extreme emergencies that the Church may impart a ministry priceless in its sym- pathies and inspirations. The Church has an invaluable 342 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE ministry for life in all the journey from birth to death. The commission for this ministry will never in time be recalled. 5. Immortality. One of the chief doctrinal missions of the Church will be ever to keep alive in human con- victions and hopes the revelation of immortality. With- out the faith of immortality, Christianity, however otherwise beautiful and inspirational, would be bereft of that which gives it chief significance and divinest values. Christianity is a religion with eternity in its message. If human faith shall lose sight of the super- lative motives and inspirations of this revelation, then, whatever else comes into view, there is hidden from life the very crown of its possibilities, and man is blind to the supreme and fadeless values which God purposes for his destiny. The Kingdom upon which Christ so habitually dwelt is indeed for this world. It is, so far as our world-history is concerned, the one supreme goal toward which God is directing the moral and spiritual activities of the race. It is God's purpose that the very earth itself shall be transformed into an abode of righteousness, that it shall finally be something far better than the lost Eden of the Genesis story. Toward this consum- mation there are now set great and increasing trends in the social and moral movements in history. There will come a day somewhere, when, considering the inevitable limitations of human existence, this world in its physical, intellectual, social, and moral conditions, will be as perfect a world as God can produce through a regenerated hu- manity. THE ABIDING CHURCH 343 But when finally, in that good age which has filled the vision of prophets, this world shall have come to its best, it will then be no more than a kindergarten in God's great plans for human destiny. The final, the consummated, Kingdom toward which Christianity works will be realized in climes whose atmospheres have never been touched by contagion, and whose landscapes bear no marks of graves. God's moral purposes for this world embrace infinite improvements, unmeasured trans- formations, for human betterment. But in all the divine scheme for this human world, there is nowhere any promise that man shall not die, that he shall be exempt from accident, that he shall not know the pains and weakness of disease, the sorrows of bereavement. When this world is made as perfect as possible by the installment of all sanitary science, and by the reg- nancy of highest moral living, it will then fall immeas- urably short of that world where God shall have wiped all tears from the eyes of his people, where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; because the former things are passed away. The ideal world-kingdom is at best but a transitional stage between much that is now evil and perishing to that which is perfect and eternal. A vivid faith in Christian immortality is of deepest necessity to the pass- ing life of men. The world -kingdom, in its perfection, can be but gradually approached. Its goal may be far distant. In the meantime multitudes of God's people in this world are struggling with poverty, with priva- tion, arc pressed upon by immeasurable limitations, by 344 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW AGE lack of opportunity, are burdened with toil, infirmities, and disease. These are the true heirs of God's redemptive grace. He does not mean that in his larger scheme of being these shall in any measure be robbed of their birthright. For them the faith of immortality holds infinite compensations. For the toilsome children of mortality, for the foot- worn and weary pilgrims of time, the Church will ever have a high and divine mission in proclaiming a clime of abiding rest for the weary, of perfect health for those now sick, a land where labor shall be an endless exhilara- tion, a land of plenty forevermore, a land in which age and decay shall give place to the beauty and vigor of undying youthfulness. BIBLIOGRAPHY 345 BIBLIOGRAPHY In addition to the following volumes as herewith named, I have had occasion to examine several topics as treated in standard books of ref- erence such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, and other works of acknowledged merit. Ames, Edward Scribner. The Psychology of Religious Experience. Bacon, Benjamin Wisner. The Fourth Gospel in Research and Debate. Ballard, Frank. Christian Essentials. Benson, Allan L. The Truth About Socialism. Boothe, Meyrick. Rudolph Eucken. Boutroux, E. Science and Religion in Contemporary Philosophy. Bowne, Borden Parker. Personality: The Essence of Religion. Brace, Charles Loring. Gesta ChristL Bricker, Garland A. Solving the Country Church Problem. Brooks, John Graham. The Social Unrest. Buckle, Henry Thomas. History of Civilization in England. Cairns, D. S. Christianity in the Modern World. Carlile, John C. Christian Union in Social Service. Chapman, Edward Mortimer. English Literature in Account with Re- ligion. Clarke, William Newton. The Christian Doctrine of God. Clow, W. M. The Cross in Christian Experience; Christ in the Social Order. Coe, George Albert. The Religion of a Mature Mind. Curnock, Nehemiah, Editor. The Journal of John Wesley. Cunningham, W. Christianity and Social Questions. Davidson, A. B. The Theology of the Old Testament. Davison, W. T. The Indwelling Spirit. Deissmann, Adolph. Light from the Ancient East. Denney, James. The Atonement and the Modern Mind. Dickinson, Charles Henry. The Christian Reconstruction of Modern Society. Dole, Charles F. The Theology of Civilization. Downey, David G. t Editor. Militant Methodism. Driver, Samuel Rolls. Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testa- ment. Eiselen, Frederick C. Prophecy and the Prophets. Eucken, Rudolf. The Problem of Human Life. 347 34 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY Fairbairn, Andrew Martin. The Philosophy of the Christian Religion, The Place of Christ in Modern Theology. Finney, Ross L. Personal Religion and the Social Awakening. Flick, Alexander Clarence. The Rise of the Mediaeval Church. Forsyth, P. T. The Person and Place of Jesus Christ. Fourth Ecumenical Methodist Conference. Gilbert, George H. Interpretation of the Bible. Gill and Pinchot. The Country Church. Gladden, Washington. Christianity and Socialism. Glasgow University Lectures. Religion and the Modern Mind. Glover, T. R. The Christian Tradition and Its Fulfillment. Gray, George Buchanan. Critical Introduction to the Old Testament. Grist, Alexander. The Historic Christ in the Faith of Today. Hall, Thomas C. Social Solutions. Halstead, William Riley. A Cosmic View of Religion. Hausmann, E. Eucken and Bergson. Hill, David J. The Social Influence of Christianity. Hillquit, Morris. Socialism Summed Up. Howerton, James R. The Church and Social Reforms. Keeble, Samuel E. The Social Teachings of the Bible. King, Basil. The Way Home. King, Henry Churchill. The Moral and Religious Challenge of Our Times; Reconstruction in Theology; Theology and the Social Con- sciousness. King, William Lester. Investment and Achievement. Knudson, Albert C. The Beacon Lights of Prophecy. Lecky, W. E. H. History of European Morals. Lee, Gerald Stanley. Crowds. Loofs, Friedrich. What is the Truth About Jesus Christ? Mathews, Shailer. The Church and the Changing Order; The Gospel and the Modern Man. Moore, Edward C. Christian Thought Since Kant. Moulton, James Hope. Religions and Religion. Nash, Henry S. Genesis of the Social Conscience; The History of the Higher Criticism. Orr, James. The Faith of a Modern Christian. Peabody, Francis Greenwood. Jesus Christ and the Social Question; Jesus Christ and Christian Character. Peake, Arthur S. The Bible Its Origin, Its Significance, Its Abiding Worth. Plantz, Samuel. The Church and the Social Problem. Rashdall, Hastings. Philosophy and Religion. BIBLIOGRAPHY 349 Rauschenbusch, Walter. Christianity and the Social Crisis; Christian- izing the Social Order. Renan, Ernest. Life of Jesus. Rice, William North. Christian Faith in an Age of Science. Russell, Lord. Collections and Recollections. Sanday, William. The Life of Christ in Recent Research; The Criticism of the Fourth Gospel. Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest of the Historic Jesus, Seven Oxford Men. Foundations. Shotwell, James T. The Religious Revolution of Today. Sims, P. Marion. What Must the Church Do to Be Saved? Smith, John. Christian Character as a Social Power. Smith, Samuel George. Democracy and the Church. Smythe, Newman. Christian Ethics. Stevens, George Barker. The Theology of the New Testament. Strong, Josiah. Our World. Swete, Henry Barclay, Editor. Cambridge Theological Essays; Cam- bridge Biblical Essays. Ulhorn, Gerhard. Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. Vaughan, Bernard. Socialism from the Christian Standpoint. Walling, William English. The Larger Aspects of Socialism. Wells, H. G. Socialism and the Great State. Wenner, George U. Religious Education and the Public Schools. Whiton, James Morris, Editor. Getting Together Essays. Williams, Aneurin. Co-Partnership and Profit-Sharing. Wilson, Warren H. The Evolution of the Country Church. Womer, Horace Emory. The Psychology of the Christian Life. Womer, Parley Paul. The Church and the Labor Conflict. INDEX 351 INDEX Abbot, Ezra, quoted, 89. America, influence of Church in early history of, 25; contribution of scholarship of, to biblical criti- cism, 93; separation of Church and state in, 101; educational system of, appraised, 103, 106, iogS.; gravity of neglect of reli- gious education in, 114; national wealth of, 145, 162; Christian Church most dominant institu- tion in, 183; status of prohibition in, 321. American Board of Foreign Mis- sions, organization of, 214. Ante-Nicene Fathers, influence of. on biblical interpretation, 82. Arethusa, 105. Argentina and Chile, peace treaty between, 313. Aristotle, 251. Assisi, Francis, 266. Athanasian creed, 9. Augustine, 9 ; the greatest Christian mind of his century, 10; early spiritual training of, 105. Bashfords, 240. Basil, 104. Bauer, 92. Benson, Allan L., quoted, 146. Bible, causes of enforced changes in interpretation of, 64; scientific knowledge to aid in interpretation of, 76; erroneously interpreted in earlier ages, 83; scientific criticism of, inevitable, 87; needs only clear opportunity to deliver its own message, 91; effect of scien- tific criticism on, 98; furnishes supreme record of God's moral and spiritual revelation of him- self to mankind, 335. Biblical criticism, Principal A. M. Fairbairn on, 80; Professor James Hope Moulton on, 80; Professor Arthur S. Peake on, 80; some historic phases of, 82ff . ; two lines of development of, 88ff.; Ezra Abbot on, 89; indebted to Ger- man nation for, 91; effect of, on German people, 92; contributed to by various nations, 93; no longer in control of destructive minds, 94; present status of, 94, 95; results of, in Old Testament, 96; in New Testament, 97; high value of, 98. Bibliotheca Sacra, quoted, 37. Bishop, Mrs. Isabella Bird, on mis- sions, 217. Booth, General, 240. Bowne, Dr. Borden Parker, quoted, 4, 182; cited, 317, 318; quoted, 326. Bricker, Professor Garland A., "Solving the Country Church Problem" by, quoted, 34, 35, 36. British Blue Book of 1904, quoted. 223. Brooklyn, results of church canvass in one ward of, 30. Brooks, Phillips, on foreign mi- sions, 216. Brotherhood of man, significance of doctrine of, 267; enthronement in 353 354 INDEX human thought of spirit of, su- preme task of a Christian civiliza- tion, 287; removal of animosities prevailing between capital and labor will open wide the door for, 309; is only philosophy which fits need of growing modern world, 3i6. Bushnell, Dr. Charles J., cited, 142. Business, investment in, a legiti- mate use of wealth, 136, 294; un- ethical management of many lines of, 272, 273; Church should be a herald for high ideals of honor and equity in, 340. Cairns, Dr. D. S., "Christianity in the Modem World" by, quoted, 287. Calvary, the superlative object les- son of God's love for man, 338- 339- Capitalism, feeling of poor toward, 46; relation of, to labor, 138, I46ff., 302ff.; message of Church to, 201; Christianization of, a supreme problem of Christianity, 202; increasingly impelled by spirit of philanthropy, 292; call for service heard and heeded by, 2 93 1 2 95; opportunity for per- sonal service in, 298; in its pres- ent form, a menace to the very Life of the republic, 304. Carey, William, 213, 240. Carlile, J. C., quoted, 287. Carnegie, Andrew, 313. Catholicism, 62; parochial schools Of, IO2, 114. Celsus, 185. Chile and Argentina, peace treaty between, 313. China, an example of conservatism, 61; the awakening of, 288, 289. Christ, Personality of, 6; imper- fectly understood by companions, 7; inadequately measured by creeds, 10; increasing influence of, 11-13; subjected to tests of science, ii; critical investigation in Germany of life of, 14; satis- faction of world's need in gospel of, 15; mission of, 17; revealed in lives of his followers, 17; friend of poor, 43, 190; methods of teach- ing, 68; attitude of, toward chil- dren, 104; teachings of, concern- ing wealth, 135, 137; belief of Christian Church in, 186; put divine seal on sacredness of fam- ily life, 191; mission of Holy Spirit to fulfill purpose of and interpret, 230, 236; the most ex- alted servant of humanity, 241; ideals of, of increasing power, 242 ; the one purpose in gospel of, to bring man into real sonship with God, 246; the ideal, into whose likeness God proposes to bring all men, 255; gospel of, a gospel of immortality, 256 ; gospel of, most fruitful source of ideals of modern prophets, 278; attitude of organized labor toward, 303; principle of cooperation in har- mony with ideals of, 308; prin- ciples announced by, continu- ally expanding in adaptation to world's new knowledge, 318; world's humanity has no hope save in gospel of, 324; the King- dom the all-inclusive end and aim of gospel preached by, 327; his conception of Kingdom, 329; mis- sion of, to reveal God to men, 337. Christendom, distinctive concep- tion of missions in, of late ex- pression, 212. INDEX 355 Christianity, influence and power of, 5, 198; measure of achieve- ment, 24; a missionary religion, 25; retarded by petty denomina- tionalism, 26; the problems of the city, the final test of, 27; relation of, to poor, 44; early, burdened with superstition, 61; fairest opportunity in a rationally ordered society, 68; living Christ basis of growing power of, 72; science an ally of, 73; value set by, upon spiritual training of childhood, 104; elimination of re- ligious instruction from public school system an injustice against, 1 06; socialism not a substitute for, 177; enfranchised laboring classes, 190; ennobling influence of, on status of woman, 191; teachings of, concerning wealth, 193; Chris- tianization of capitalism a su- preme problem of, 202 ; spread by persecution, 212; mission of, to the bodies as well as to the souls of men, 224; hampered by pagan- ism in early ages, 233; sacredness of human life, a new ideal intro- duced by, 247ff.; a leveler of caste, 250; genuine, characterized by active sympathy with human needs, 265; part of mission of, to remove causes from which world's needs arise, 266; some of the prophets of social, 269; problems confronting social, 270, 271 ; pres- ent-day revival a translation of, into terms of modern-world thought, 282; problems confront- ing present-day, are world prob- lems, 288-290; sufficient to meet social and moral needs of all mankind, 291; real spirit of, ex- emplified among missionary work- ers, 310; spirit of federation one of largest prophecy for, 311; to become the universal and final religion, 318; supreme appeal of, is to the divine and worshipful in man, 319, 320; a chief function of, to produce Christlike men, 327; fundamental truths of, have their source in God, 338; prom- ises not exemption from trial, but sustaining grace, 341. Christian living, Church a chief training school for practical, 340. Chrysostom, early spiritual training of, 105. Church, Christian, a success or failure, 24; place of, in American history, 25; present status of, in America, 26; status of, in cities, 29; causes of decline in rural com- munities, 3 iff. ; Professor Garland A. Bricker on country, 34, 35, 36; attitude of poor toward, 44ff., 150, 203; supported and attended largely by privileged classes, 45; quality of mission work of, 45; labor out of harmony with, 47!!., 303; mutual need of laboring man and, 49, 50; theological teaching of, in early ages, 83; rule of, in Middle Ages, beneficent, 84; mother of popular education, 106; mutual need of professional classes and, 122; should stand for highest truth, 123; character of ministry of vital importance to, 125; needs adequately trained ministry, 128; undue influence of wealth in, 153; influence of, 183; growth of, 184, 185; vitalized by an indwelling divinity, 185, 187; belief of, in Jesus Christ, 186; some fundamental teachings of, 187, 188; transforming Jnflnnnoi) 356 INDEX of, upon institutions of society, 189; friend of poor and toiling men, 190; high place accorded woman by, 192; humane reforms inspired by, 194; debt of civiliza- tion to, 197; critical situation con- fronting present-day, 199; mes- sage of, to the capitalist, 201; alienation of labor and, an im- measurable disaster, 204; must acquire secret and power of working unity, 205, 311; blind- ness of, as to its missionary duty, 212; missionary message to, calls for largest consecration of gifts and service, 218; promise of Holy Spirit not fully appropriated in faith of, 229; new moral educa- tion arising in, 268 ; characteristics of future, 282 ; distinction between "Kingdom" and, 327, 328; some achievements of, in preparing for coming of Kingdom, 330; is or- ganization through which Chris- tianity can discharge its mission most efficiently, 331; superlative truths with which it is distinctive mission of, to deal, 333-342. Churchill, Winston, "The Modern Quest for a Religion" by, cited, 15; "The Inside of the Cup" by, cited, 151. Church Missionary Society of Lon- don, 213. Cicero, quoted, 189. City, controlling power of modern civilization, 27; characteristics of ideal, 28; present-day evils of, 28; status of Christian Church in, 29. Civilization, requirements of an ideal, 102; debt of, to Christian Church, 189-194, 197; supreme task of Christian, 287; capitalism a passing phase in, 304; greatest menace to present, warfare be- tween wealth and production, 304- Clement, quoted, 190. Clow, Dr. W. M., "Christ in the Social Order" by, quoted, 135, 156. Coe, Professor George A., quoted, 296. Conservatism, a controlling force in thought and conduct, 61,62. Cooperation, instead of competi- tion, 287; a word of great promise for the future, 304; principle of, in harmony with ideals of Jesus Christ, 308. Cooperative developments, extent of, 307; Aneurin Williams on, 307; Professor Walter Rauschenbusch on, 308. Copernicus, 169. Corliss engine, the evolution of the, 65- Corporations, monopolistic, 140- 142; relation of, to politics and legislation, 144; ad vantage of .over labor, I46ff. See Capitalism. Country, status of Church in, 30, 33; changed conditions in, 31,32; inadequate support of Church and ministry in, 355. Crane, Dr. Frank, quoted, 264. Cross, the measure of God's invest- ment in the interests of man, 254, 338; testifies to infinite values in human nature, 255. Crow, Carl, cited, 213; quoted, 217, 223, 224. Custom, tyranny of, 58, 232. Darwin, 121, 169. Davison, W. T., quoted, 228. Declaration of the Official Curric- ulum from the Volksschulen of INDEX 357 the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, quoted, 107. Denmark, cooperative develop- ments in, 307. Dennis, Dr. James S., quoted, 224. Dominations, number of, in Amer- ican Protestantism, 26; multipli- cation of, a blight on rural churches, 33, 129; need of a working unity among, 205, 207, 3". Dickens 's Christmas story of Scrooge, quoted, 299, 300. Dickinson, Charles Henry, quoted, 42, 134, 244; "The Christian Re- construction of Modern Life" by, cited, 319. Driver, S. R., 93. Edison, 253. Education, secularization of, a de- structive foe to spirituality, 101; relation of, to effective ministry, I25ff.; new moral, arising in Church, 268. See Religious Edu- cation. England, cooperative developments in, 307. Erasmus, 84. Eucken, Rudolf, the philosophy of, 317,318. Evolution, teachings of, with ref- erence to laws of conduct, 57; goal of, a universe peopled with moral and spiritual intelligence, 258. Fairbairn, Principal A. M., quoted, 80; "The Philosophy of the Chris- tian Religion" by, cited, 317. Faith, relation of science to, 69. Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the, quoted, loo; cited, 115. Federation, spirit of, in mission fields, a summons to home churches, 309, 310; spirit of, one of largest prophecy for Chris- tianity, 311. France, 93, 308. Francke, August Hermann, real founder of public school, 105. Fraser, Sir Andrew H. L., quoted, 224. Frederick the Great, 105. French Revolution, 304. Garrison, William Lloyd, 272. General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, resolution of, in 1796, concerning foreign missions, 214. Germany, critical investigation in, of life of Christ, 14; indebted to, for biblical criticism, 92; pro- vision for religious training in educational system of, 107, 108; cooperative developments in, 307. Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" cited, 184, 249. Gill, Charles Otis, 38. God, the Church the expounder of the will of, concerning man, 188; Holy Spirit is, in the world work- ing mission and kingdom of Jesus Christ, 229; Old Testament view of, 245; New Testament view of, 246; purpose of, in man, 25 iff.; transcendent meaning of cross centers in interest of, in hu- manity, 254, 338; real glory of, is moral, 256; evolution has no meaning without, 258; brother- hood of man, a twin doctrine to Fatherhood of, 267; patiently working out his purpose, 268; the rights of the children of, to His wealth, 305; the truth about, 333-338. See Holy Spirit. 358 INDEX Golden Rule, contains final solution of misadjustments of the world, 242. Goldsmith, "Deserted Village," quoted, 130. Greece, 196. Gregory of Nazianzen, 104. Hall, Gordon, 214. Halstead, Dr. William R., quoted, 100; "A Cosmic View of Reli- gion" by, quoted, 102. Hardie, Keir, "Serfdom to Social- ism" by, quoted, 172. Harrison, H. S., "V. V.'s Eyes" by, cited, 151. Hague Court of Arbitration, 315. Heathendom, absence in, of better qualities of Christian civilization, 195- Higher criticism, 88; defined, 91; acceptance of, 93; influence of, compared with that of secularized education, 101. Hill, David J., quoted, 4. Hillquit, Morris, quoted, 42, 136, 158, 159, 171. *73- Hofmann, quoted, 18. Holland, 93. Holy Spirit, mission of, 229, 236; supreme task of, to gain moral supremacy over the individual, 231; test of Spirit's reign, that one's life shall show conformity to law of, 232; larger relation of, to the world, 232; work of, in spiritual enlightenment and trans- formation of human society, 2345.; advance of race under guidance of, 239; the continuous Teacher and Inspirer of the Church, 339. Home, lack of religious training in, 103. Home Missions Council, 310. Honorable East India Company, attitude of, toward missions, 213, 272. Hort, 89. Horton, Dr. R. P., cited, 29. Howard, John, 240. Howerton, James R., "The Church and Social Reforms" by, quoted, 324- Hugo, Victor, quoted, 244. Hunter, Sir William, quoted, 210. Immortality, teaching of Church concerning, 188; an indispensable condition for development of hu- manity in God, 256; one mission of Church, to keep alive in human hopes the revelation of, 342; a vivid faith in, of deepest neces- sity to passing life of men, 343. Ingersoll, Robert, 185. International Critical Commentary, 93- International Peace Plan, 315. International Socialist Bureau, 158. International Theological Library, 93- Israel, message of prophets to, 274- 277- Italy, 93. James, William, cited, 317. Japan, awakening of, 288. Johannine writings, biblical criti- cism of authorship and dates, 97. Judah, message of prophets to, 274- 277- Judsons, the, 240. Kant, 121. Kepler, 240. Kidd, Benjamin, 194. INDEX 359 King, Basil, "The Way Home" by, quoted, 152. Kingdom, the, 198; dedication of wealth to upbuilding of, 203, 295, 300; human enlightenment not yet ready for full development of, 237; new moral education in Church the foreheralding of mightiest revival in interests of, 268; factors in upbuilding of, 281 ; movement for reign of peace, a movement of, 316; is all-inclusive end and aim of Christ's teaching, 327; Christ's conception of, 329; is coming to its own in Christian thought, 331 ; supreme agency for bringing of, is regenerated and individual lives, 332; ideal world, a transitional stage to that which is perfect and eternal, 343. Knowledge, debt of, to science, Labor, attitude of, toward Church, 47, 150, 189, 203; condition of, without Church, 49; mutual need of Church and laboring men, 50, 204; responsibility of wealth to- ward, 138; advantage of corpora- tions over, I46ff.; outlook for, 148; growing discontent of, 150; relation of, to Socialism, 158; some contributory causes to prej- udice against spirit of organized, 301 ; relation between capital and, 302ff.; theory wrong that, is sole producer of values, 306. Leadership, demand for educated, I25ff. Legislation, influence of financial interests on, 144. Lessing, quoted, 9, 12. Libanius, quoted, 105. Life, human, new ideal of sacred- ness of, introduced by Chris- tianity, 2478. Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 23; emancipator and martyr, 240. Liquor traffic, international crusade against, 321, 322. Livingstone, 240. Loofs, Dr. Friedrich, "What Is the Truth About Jesus Christ?" by, quoted, n. Lowell, James Russell, quoted, 46, 264. Luther, demand of, for religious education of childhood, 105- cited, 121, 240. Macaulay, on Lessing, 9. Macdonald, Ramsey, quoted, 173. Machinery, introduction of, radi- cally changed relation of capital to labor, 145. Maeterlinck, "Mary Magdalene" by, quoted, 43, 44. Mammon, power of, 270, 271. Man, the two supreme facts of Christian revelation are God and, 245; highest interpretation of, the Son of God, 247; God's purpose in, 25 iff.; is greater than his achievements, 252; mod sov- ereign achievements of, are sim- ply for service, 353; the cross, the measure of God's investment in the interests of, 254. 33*; to be brought into the likeness of Christ, 255; immortality to fur- nish opportunity for fullest de- velopment of, 256-258; goal of evolution, man perfected, 259; divine view of, destined to take controlling place in common thought, 260; significance of doc- trine of brotherhood of, 267. Mathews, Shailer. quoted. 265. 360 INDEX McArthur, Alexander, M. P., quot- ed, 2IO. Methodist Men, National Conven- tion Of, 211, 215. Meyer, Henry H., 18, 109. Middle Ages, place held by Church in, 85; religious education during, 105. Mills, Samuel, 214. Milton, 240. Ministry, arduous duties, and in- adequate support of, in rural communities, 34ff.; average sal- ary of, compared with certain classes of laborers, 37; intellectual demands on, 120; character of, of vital importance to Church, 125; need of thorough educational preparation for, 1255.; some at- tributes of efficient, 130; restric- tions placed upon by worshipers of Mammon, 273, 274. Missionaries, high qualifications necessary for, 221,222; work of requires infinite patience and faith, 222; real spirit of Chris- tianity exemplified among, 310. Missions, Sir William Hunter on, 210; Alexander McArthur on, 210; Dr. W. F. Oldham on, 210, 215, 312; the most sublime move- ment in present-day history, 211; movement started in face of in- difference and opposition, 213; Carl Crow on, 213, 217, 223, 224; phenomenal growth of, in recent years, 214,215; Phillips Brooks on, 216; Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop on, 217; message of, calls for largest consecration of gifts and service, 218; considered as a business enterprise, 219; coming victory of, 220, 225; efficient ad- ministration of home boards, 221 ; magnificent educational work of, 223; British Blue Book of 1904 on, 223; medical and other achievements of, 224; Dr. James S. Dennis on, 224; Sir Andrew H. L. Fraser on, 224; supreme importance of Christian unity taught by, 309; significance of, in their relation to progress of Christ's Kingdom, 312. Monica, 105. Monopolies, capitalistic, a menace to democratic government, 141; opposed to progress of vital Chris- tianity, 142; individuals compos- ing, ordinarily selfish, 143. See Capitalism. Morrisons, the, 240. Mott, Dr. John R., leadership of, 220. Moulton, Professor James Hope, quoted, 80. Muir, Rev. William, "Christianity and Labor" by, quoted, 153. Nature, scientific knowledge of, a modern achievement, 71. Neglected Fields Survey, cited, 310. New Testament, results of biblical criticism of, 97; revelation of God in, 246. Newton, 169. New York City, the most important mission field of the world, 206. Nicholson, Dr. Thomas, quoted, 100, 109, in, 112, 118. Nightingale, Florence, 240. Northwestern University, recruits from, for foreign missionary serv- ice, in. Oldham, Dr. W. F., quoted, 210, 215,312. Old Testament, results of biblical INDEX criticism of, 96; revelation of God in, 245. Orient, linked by science with the west, 71; awakening of, 288; interests of Occident and, in- creasingly intermingled, 289. Paganism, unable to satisfy deeper spiritual instincts, 196; effect of, upon early Christianity, 233; transformation of, by Holy Spirit, 234- Palace of Peace at The Hague, 313. Panama Canal belt, transformed by science, 75. Paul, Saint, incomplete knowledge of Christ, 8 ; teaching of, concern- ing function of Holy Spirit, 230; great emphasis laid by, upon the "Church," 328. Peabody, George, 240. Peace, international movements in interest of, 313-316. Peake, Professor Arthur S., quoted, 80. Philanthropy, some general features of present-day, 292ff. Philosophy, of future, to be en- riched by scientific knowledge, 75; marked reaction in, from ma- terialism of a generation ago, 316; influence of religion upon, 317. Pinchot, Gifford, quoted, 22; cited, 38. Plantz, President, results of labor inquiry made by, 48. Plato, 251. Politics, control of, by financial in- terests, 144. Poor, Christ, the friend of, 43; attitude of, toward Church, 44ff ., I5<>, 203; awakening sense of soli- darity, 46; interest of, in social justice, 47; attractive program offered by Socialism to, 161. Population, compared with church membership and attendance, 26, 27, 29. Press, influence of, 119; venalized by financial interests, 144. Production, factors entering into, 305,306. Prohibition, status of, in United States, 321. Prophets, some modern, of social Christianity, 269; message of, 270; mission of Hebrew, a de- mand for social justice, 274-376; similarity of conditions confront- ing ancient and modern, 277; wealth of equipment at disposal of modern, 277; characteristics of modern, 278,279; some dis- ciples from the schools of our modern, 296, 297. Protestantism, neglect in, of spirit- ual teaching of young, 103; mis- sionary enterprise, a common enthusiasm of, 214; gifts of, to missions, 215, 219; sentiment to- ward federation of, for missionary conquest, 220; interest of, in human welfare, 265; finding its true self in spirit of federation, 3- Prussia, 105. Ptolemaic astronomy, 64. Racial feelings, necessity for a transformation of, 290. Rail, Dr. Harris Franklin, quoted, 118. Rauschenbusch, Professor Walter, quoted, 134, 156. 3<*. Reason, the intellectual and social disturber of the ages, 57; conflict of, with conservatism, 61. 362 INDEX Reformation, relation of, to biblical criticism, 86; cited, 235. Reimarus, 14. Religion, relation of, to science, 72; separated from State, 101 ; status of, in the home, 103; Socialism antagonistic to, 174; philosophy influenced by, 317; Christianity to become the universal and final, 318. Religious education, lack of, in American schools, 104, 106; in Middle Ages, 105; in Germany, 107, 108; lack of, in American State universities, 109-112; need of, cannot be met by Sunday school, 113; the great gravity of the situation, 114. Renaissance, 234; present-day re- vival of educational ideals, a Christian, 282. Renan, quoted, 13. Richmond, James, 214. Roman empire, status of woman in, 191. Rome, 183, 196. Roosevelt, 37. Ryan, Professor John Augustine, quoted, 156; debate with Mr. Hillquit cited, 172; quoted, 174. Sabatier, quoted, 76. Salvation Army, 323. Sanday, Professor, quoted, 93, 97. Savage, Marion Button, quoted, 264. Schools, public, contribution of, to national life, 102; marked ad- ' vance in secular, but neglect of religious training in, 104; August Hermann Francke, the founder of, 105. Schweitzer, Albert, quoted, 7, 14, 17- Science, contributions of, to biblical interpretation, 64; relation of, to truth, 69 ; achievements of, 70, 71 ; relation of, to religion, 72; an ally of Christianity, 73; service of, for world's betterment, 74ff.; debt of, to individual toilers, 169; conquest of nature by, -252. Scotland, 93. Selfishness, a great foe of social and moral progress, 138, 139; as evi- denced in capitalistic monopolies, 140-143. Semler, 92. Seneca, quoted, 190, 196. Service, the true measure of great- ness, 240; Christ, our ideal in, 241 ; call for, heard and heeded at seats of capital, 293; opportunity for, in various professions, 298; new ideals of, making resistless appeal to the rich and strong for, 300. Shakespeare, quoted, 244; cited, 253- Sidgwick, Henry, quoted, 63. Simm, "What Must the Church Do to Be Saved?" by, cited, 38. Sin, teaching of Church concerning, 187. Smith, Robertson, 93. Smith, Dr. Samuel George, quoted, 326. Socialism, interests of poor aligned with, 47; Dr. W. M. Clow on, 156; Professor Walter Rauschen- busch on, 156; Professor John Augustine Ryan on, 156; organi- zation and growth of, 157; Morris Hillquit on, 158, 159, 171, 173; basic philosophy of, 159-161; program of, a maze of imprac- ticabilities, i62ff. ; ideals of, ma- terialistic, 166, 172, 176; offers INDEX 363 no suitable reward for achieve- ment, 1 68; does not give fair encouragement to thrift, 169; H. G. Wells on, 170; blind to moral and spiritual needs of men, 172; Ramsey Macdonald on, 172; Keir Hardie on, 172; dominating minds of, overwhelm- ingly anti-Christian, 174; disre- gards benefit to individual of toil, 175; not a substitute for Christianity, 177. Soul, teaching of Church concern- ing, 1 88. Spahr, Charles B., 200. Speer, Dr. Robert E., quoted, 211. Strachan, Dr. James, "New Cyclo- pedia of Religion and Ethics," quoted, 96. Straus, 12, 92. Strong, E>r. Josiah, quoted, 24, 286; "Social Progress," "New Cyclo- pedia of Reform," cited, 26. Students' Volunteer Movement, work of, 219. Sunday school, enrollment of, 112, 323; cannot meet the larger de- mands for religious education, 113- Superstition, evolution of, 59; by many, intermingled with reli- gious faith, 60. Taxation of large fortunes, 160, 168. Taylor, Dr. Charles B., 33. Telemachus, 248. Temperance reform, growth of, 321, 322. Tennyson, 77; quoted, 286. Theology, of future, to be aided by scientific knowledge, 75; need of a newly formulated, 123. Thought, evolution of superstitious, 59; conservatism a controlling force governing human, 6i; the need of original, 63; imperative need of rational rule over, 67; effect of irrational on religion, 68; science a clarifier of, 69; the changing order in, 121; the Church's need of modern scienti- fic, 122, 123; new movement in Christian, 269. Timothy, early religious training of, 104. Traditional thinking, power of, 59; two types of, 63, 65. Uhlhorn, Dr. Gerhard, quoted, 182. Universities, State, lack of provi- sion for religious training, an indictment against, no; small percentage of religious workers from, in. Volunteers of America, 323. Vulgate, Latin, 84. Walling, William English, quoted, 174- Ward, Mrs. Humphry, "Richard Meynell" by, cited, 153. Warschauer, Dr., quoted, 286. Watt, James, 65, 66. Wealth, legitimacy and rights of private, 135; Christ's teachings concerning, 135, 137; consecra- tion of, to the common good, 136, 292-294, 300; possession of, a great responsibility, 138, 193, 201 ; despotism of selfish acquisi- tion and use of, 139; national, of America, 145, 162; undue in- fluence of, in Church, 153; views of Socialism concerning, 160; amount of, per capita, 162; need of private, for cultural institu- tions, 167; distribution of, in 364 INDEX United States, 200; rule of Mam- mon, 270, 271; highest satisfac- tion of, in call for moral service, 295; man of, has great poten- tialities of service, 297. Welfare, of individual, never so sought and studied as now, 238; rising tide of interest in, invasive of Protestant Christianity, 265; present-day interest in, seeks to remove causes of need, 266. Welhausen, 92. Wells, H. G., "The Great State" by, quoted, 170. Wenner, Dr. George U., "Religious Education and the Public School" by, quoted, 105. Wesley, John, 121, 266. Westcott, 89. Whedon, Dr., quoted, 329. Whittier, quoted, 261. Wilberforce, 240. Williams, Aneurin, "Co-Partner- ship and Profit-Sharing" by, quoted, 307. Wilson, President, "The New Free- dom" by, quoted, 141, 143; "International Peace Plan" of, 315- Wilson, Dr. Warren H., quoted, 22. Woman, ennobling influence of Christianity upon status of, 191, 192. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- ciety, medical work of, 224. Worcester, Dr. Elwood, quoted, 56. Work necessary to highest attain- ments of character, 175. Working classes, alienation of, from Churches, 151, 203. World, landmarks in the spiritual redemption of, 234-236; the "Golden Rule" the final solution of misadjustments of, 242; su- preme problems confronting Christianity are world-problems, 288-291; needs capitalists who are stewards for Kingdom of Christ, 295. World's Missionary Conference at Edinburgh, an expression of Christian unity, 310. Wrede, William, 14. Wurtemburg, 105, 107. Young Men's Christian Association, inestimable service rendered by, 323- Young Women's Christian Associa- tion, 323. THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. y i -_ muniiii A 000 891 587 8