oppress the widows by starvation wages and grind the faces of the poor by monopoly prices; it may cost them the favour of those who grow fat on the toil of children, who make long prayers but practice the world's ethics; it may mean that a testing time will come to some of the churches and many prophets may find themselves homeless. But if men hesitate on this account they will lose their power for service; nay, they are already lost. Already a brilliant and discerning Socialist has said: "It is the uncrucified Christianity that speaks from the modern pulpit and sits in the church pews that is driving the passion for humanity into other channels than the Church." Will the people calling themselves Christian believe the Gospel and fulfill their commission? Will they accept the leadership of the social faith and mobilize men for the King's campaign? Can they show that their faith in Christ is a bond of union and a principle of action ? Will they out-human the humanitarians and outserve the Socialists in their interest in man and their passion for justice? If so, they will have no difficulty in proving that Christianity is of God and that Jesus Christ is the King of the world. If not they will discount every article of their Christian faith and will make it very hard for the world to have any interest in Christianity.

The idea of the kingdom of God-the divine goal of the world and the supreme good of man-is both a protest and a confession. It is a protest against everything in the present social order that is unjust and unbrotherly, that is contrary to the will of God and is hurtful to man. It is a confession of faith in the divine order which God wills and wants established in

the earth; it is the faith that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of God. Christianity is not here to make men satisfied with things as they are; it is here rather to make men dissatisfied with evil and to inspire them to arise and make things as they ought to be. Christianity is not here to show men how to escape from the city of destruction and get away to the Celestial City; it is here rather to inspire men to labour and serve to transform the city of destruction into a City of God. The time has been when men thought of Christianity as "an ecstasy for the emotionalist, a walking dream for the abstractionist," something having to do with saved souls in some other world, but as unrelated to saved lives here, something given to prepare men for heaven in some other sphere, but not designed to bring heaven down to earth that it may be realized among men, above all as something that primarily and chiefly concerns preachers and churches and Sundays but has little relation to common men, to civic affairs on week-days. The time has come for men to accept the Master's ideal of the kingdom of God, to follow a large and comprehensive program, to make Jesus Christ a FACT not alone for the cloister and the prayer-meeting but in the actual and universal life of the world, and to build on earth a city that shall be the realization of the Holy City. If there is an obligation upon men to hold Christian principles, there is an equal obligation upon them to make those principles prevail. If it is a Christian's duty to cherish the ideal of a Christian social order it is no less his Christian duty to build a Christian social order. If it is right and proper for men to pray that God's kingdom may come and His will may be done on earth as in heaven, it is no less

right and proper for them to seek to have His will done and His kingdom built here and now. The Christian is hence bound by his very contract to agitate and serve and strive till every wrong is abolished, till righteousness is enthroned in human society in all its relations, till justice has become the daily practice of society in all its customs and institutions, till every human being has room enough for the full expression of his powers, till the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of God, and the Holy City of the seer's vision has become the reality of earth

Till upon earth's grateful sod,
Rests the City of our God.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rauschenbusch: "Christianity and the Social Crisis."
Crooker: "The Church of To-day."

Gladden : "The Church and Modern Life."
Peabody: "Jesus Christ and the Social Question."
Eucken:"Christianity and the New Idealism."

Spargo: "The Spiritual Significance of Modern Socialism."

Appendix

THE SOCIAL SERVICE PROGRAM

MANY things indicate that the churches are beginning to realize their obligations to society and are seriously seeking to lead the social faith. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, representing thirty-five religious bodies and about twenty million members, has created a Social Service Commission charged with the duty "to study social condition, to afford by its action and utterance an expression of the purpose of the churches of Christ in the United States, to recognize the import of present social movements and industrial conditions, and to cooperate in all practicable ways to promote in the churches the development of the spirit and practice of social service." This commission has issued a statement outlining some of the things for which the churches should stand. This platform and program has been accepted and ratified by a number of religious bodies in the country, as the Northern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Assembly, the Methodist Federation for Social Service and the Congregational Council.

THE CHURCH AND MODERN INDUSTRY

For equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life. For the right of all men to the opportunity of self-maintenance, a right ever to be wisely and strongly safeguarded against encroachments of every kind.

For the right of the workers to some protection against the hardships often resulting from the swift crises of industrial change.

For the principle of conciliation and arbitration in industrial dissensions.

For the protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational disease, injuries and mortality.

For the abolition of child labour.

For such regulation of the conditions of toil for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community.

For the gradual and reasonable reduction of the hours of labour to the lowest practicable point, and for that degree of leisure for all which is a condition of the highest human life.

For a release from employment one day in seven.

For the suppression of the "sweating system.”

For a living wage as a minimum in every industry and for the highest wage that each industry affords.

For the most equitable division of the products of industry that can ultimately be devised.

For suitable provision for the old age of workers and for those incapacitated by injury.

For the abatement of poverty.

In addition the Social Service Commission of the Northern Baptist Convention issues a program for the Family and the Civic Community.

THE CHURCH AND THE FAMILY

For home training for social living.
For the single standard of purity.

For the teaching of sex hygiene.

For uniform divorce legislation and for stricter regulations of matrimony.

For sanitary homes and tenements and systematic inspection.

For the abolition of overcrowding and the guaranteee of sufficient room for health and decency.

For the preservation of the home against industrial invasion.

THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY

For the suppression of vile shows, unclean literature and unfit posters. For the abolition of the liquor traffic, opium, cocaine and other habitforming drugs.

For the suppression of the red light district, the white slave traffic and sex diseases.

For the suppression of gambling in all its forms.

For the cleansing and prevention of city slums.

For the administration of justice with a saving purpose.

For playgrounds and city parks accessible to the people.

For more rational and moral forms of amusement.

For an investigation of civic conditions and for a civic plan.
For civil service methods in all civic offices.

For the active participation of men of good will in civic affairs.