some synthesis which shall unite mankind into one body and marshal them as one army to confront the ills of the world and to seek the perfection of society. In fine, we need some unifying and coherent view of life as a whole, some social synthesis which views the many departments of man's life as integral parts of life itself and justifies these departments in relation to life's grand good as a whole, some inclusive program which unites all these departments in the development of one common life. In the nineteen centuries of its history Christianity has done much for man and for society. It has won the allegiance of millions of noble lives. It has dissolved the doubts of men and has solved some of the problems of society. It has permeated the dead lump of human society and has set up a great ferment. It has cheered millions of pilgrims across the world and has lighted the eyes of dying men with visions of the Celestial City. It has become the inspiration and the potency of countless forms of social service. But Christianity has not yet achieved the redemption of the world or transformed the lump of human society. It has not yet solved the problems confronting the modern world. And its present methods and achievements give no assurance of the redemption of the world within any measurable time. The primary question at issue in this study is not whether the world as a whole is growing better or worse. We may firmly believe that it is growing better. We may grant that a large part of the progress made in the past is due directly and indirectly to the truth and power of Christianity. The real question at issue to-day is this: Whether the power of Christianity is adequate to the tasks of this modern world; whether in fact it can achieve the redemption of human society within any measurable time. The fact that such a condition exists to-day as we have described shows clearly that Christianity has not yet had its perfect work. And this suggests the question whether the time has not come for Christian men to make a diligent study of the Christian idea and ideal, to take a fresh survey of the world and its needs, to make a careful appraisal of their methods and plans, and to listen again for the word which the Spirit is speaking unto the churches. It is evident, at any rate, that much work yet remains to be done, that some great task is yet to be fulfilled. The nature of this unfinished task must now be considered; with this fairly before us we shall know the special work to which this age is summoned. Brace: BIBLIOGRAPHY “Gesta Christi: A History of Humane Progress Under Christianity." Lecky: A History of European Morals." Crooker: "The Church of To-day." Senate Document No. 644: The Report of the President's Homes Commission. Brooks: "The Social Unrest." Hunter: "Poverty." Mathews: "The Church and the Changing Order." II THE NEW AGE AND ITS PROBLEMS Τ HE world changes and men change with it. come to the front and make their insistent demand. Every age is, in a sense, peculiar, and has problems that are peculiar. This age has a life of its own, and so it has problems that are distinctive. The present age is a restless and troubled age. Men are cumbered about many things and are asking many questions. The sign manual of the time is an interrogation point rampant. What we call our horizon is a line of question marks. The word problems is one of the most frequent words in common speech to-day. The Sphinx, we are told, is sitting by the roadside in our Western world and is propounding her fateful questions to every passer-by. And these questions sweep the circle of man's life and press upon him at every point. There are questions confronting the Church; in fact, we are told that the Church is facing the most momentous crisis of its long history. There are problems troubling society also; our Western civilization, it is said, is face to face with social and political problems graver in character and more far-reaching in extent than any which have been hitherto encountered. In ethics and philosophy we find much the same perplexity; from the theologian and the sociologist comes the same sad confession. At every turn man is confronted with a problem in whose solution he is told the whole world is interested. There is a sense in which these problems are old because they have to do with human life and social progress. In fact, we have some ground for the declaration that every problem before us to-day is as old as the pyramids. But there is a sense also in which these problems are wholly new and original. At any rate, they wear a different aspect to-day, and the tasks growing out of them press at a new point of incidence. What then, it is pertinent to inquire, are the special problems of this modern world? What are the great needs of this time? What are the tasks which Christianity is now called to fulfill? I. THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 1. In these times the race is coming to social selfconsciousness and men are discovering that they are social beings. In these latter days men are gaining what has been called the sense of humanity, and they are learning that the race is one great unit. To-day men are learning to think of humanity, not as a number of disconnected and independent individuals, but as the interrelated and interdependent members of a living society. Our personal life is rooted in the life of humanity and it flourishes in that soil, deriving its richest nourishment from it and living itself because others live. One man, says a wise old proverb, is no man. Thought is unable to conceive of any such thing as an independent human being. We begin life as sons, and we continue it as brothers, fathers, neighbours, friends and citizens. In the most real sense we have discovered that no man lives to himself and no man dies to him self. We have discovered that the race is one, that we are bound in the bondage of our fellows and that we can become free only in and through their freedom. We are all in the same boat, and we must all sink together or we must all be saved together. In the light of this social self-consciousness men are seeing many things as they never saw them before. They are discovering that society is poor and miserable and naked and destitute; they are discovering that many members of the race are growing up in conditions which practically make impossible a full and worthy and human life. They are finding that many persons are really disinherited by society and have no real heritage in life; they are finding that through the toils and sacrifices of the generations past society has come into a vast heritage of achievement and resources; and yet through neglect on the part of many or through fraud on the part of some this heritage has fallen into few hands and the great mass of the people have no fair share in it. The fact is, "A large proportion of the population in the prevailing state of society take part in the rivalry of life only under conditions which absolutely preclude them, whatever their natural merit or ability, from any real chance therein. They come into the world to find the best positions not only already filled, but practically occupied in perpetuity. For, under the great body of rights which wealth has inherited from feudalism, we, to all intents and purposes, allow the wealthy classes to retain control of these positions generation after generation, to the permanent exclusion of the rest of the people."1 2. And this brings us face to face with the problem 'Kidd, "Social Evolution," p. 232. |