institutions of man's social life. We find that Christianity to be true to itself and to the idea of the kingdom must create a social order that shall cover the whole range of man's life and shall include all the relations of his being. This means that the program of the kingdom in its fullness implies the creation of a human society on earth in which the person, the family, the Church and the state all have their appropriate place and coöperate as parts of one great whole. This means that the perfection of man involves the perfection of society, and thus "The whole body fitly framed and compact together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.” And now the truth begins to break upon us in all its meridian splendour; now we begin to see the task to which we are fairly committed. In considering the processes of history we saw that all the lines of inquiry converged at the one point and led to the one conclusion. And in considering the purpose of God as revealed in the conception of the kingdom of God we see that all the lines of inquiry converge at one point and indicate one duty. And now we see that all of these lines of inquiry, the processes of history and the providences of God, converge at one and the same point and disclose one and the same task. The fundamental conception of Christianity is the kingdom of God, a divine-human society on earth. The problems of to-day are social problems and as such they require a social solution. The new task of Christianity is now before us; the 'Eph. iv. 16. great work to be done by the generations to come is now clearly outlined. It is nothing less than the building up in the earth of a new and Christian type of human society. This means that Christian people are now called to undertake the task of social redemption in the confidence that the work to which they are called is the will of God. This means that Christian men, who have been seeking to make Christian homes and Christian churches, must widen their programs and must now undertake seriously the work of building Christian cities and making a Christian state. This task they cannot evade or deny without being disloyal to the kingdom of God, discounting the power of the Gospel and lowering their standard in the eyes of men. To this task they are fairly and squarely committed by the providences of God and the exigency of the times, and by the way they fulfill this task will they prove the sincerity of their faith and the power of their religion. The fact that Christianity has created the highest and finest type of personal piety is not enough; the fact that it has created the Christian family and the Christian Church tells us something about its power and its efficiency but it does not tell us everything. Now it must prove its ability to permeate all life and to transform society; to-day it must prove its power to create a Christian type of social order. To this task the Christian discipleship is fairly committed by the Christian ideal, and to this task it is fully called by the needs of humanity, and nothing can becloud this fact or scale down this demand. The Christian discipleship cannot refuse this task without treason against the kingdom of God; it cannot plead inability without confessing the impotence of the Gospel; a Christianity that is not adequate to the largest tasks is not worth any serious consideration; a discipleship that does not do the whole work of the kingdom is making it difficult for men to have any interest in Christianity. The nature of Christianity and the processes of history have fairly committed to the Christian discipleship the task of building up in the earth the Christian type of human society. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bruce: "The Kingdom of God." Campbell: "Christianity and the Social Order." Gladden : "The Church and Modern Life." Ward: "Social Ministry"; by Ward and others. IV THE PROGRAM OF SOCIAL SALVATION T HE nature of the task before modern Christianity suggests the program of social action. This task as we have seen is nothing less than the making of a better order of human society. The program it hence follows contemplates nothing other than the building of a Christian type of society on earth. What does this imply? What are the steps that must be taken to reach this goal? It is not necessary, and it is not possible to go into detail and define all the steps that must be taken and all the tasks that must be fulfilled. But it is important, yes, it is necessary, that we have some conception of the work before us, that we have some sense of direction in human progress and that we know the lines along which the children of God must move in the fulfillment of their commission; in fine it is essential that we know whether we are seeking the whole kingdom of God or only a small fraction of that kingdom. A clear vision of the end to be attained is all important, a definite conception of the factors entering into the program is most vital; then with this there must be some idea of the relation of one man's work to all other men's work, with some correlation of plans and efforts; but beyond this we cannot go and we need not care. The particular methods of Christian work and the special applications of the Christian principles must then depend upon the needs of the hour and the place, and these methods and applications cannot be named in advance. There are two desiderata that are essential in any working program of the kingdom; with either of these factors ignored or minimized we shall prove ourselves but foolish meddlers and shall defeat the end we have in view. Any program of the kingdom to be satisfactory must be Christian in spirit and scope; that is, it must be motived by the spirit of love and brotherhood; it must be interested in every man and must appraise every life at a high valuation; and it must seek nothing less than the whole welfare of man, spirit, mind and body. And second, it must be comprehensive in scope and synthetic in method; that is, it must take into account the various factors entering into man's life and character; it must preserve what may be called the balance in reform and progress; and above all, it must not misdirect effort at any one point to the utter confusion of effort at every other point. In the previous chapters we have considered the new task which the providences of God and the exigency of the times are setting before men. And we have found that this is nothing less than the making of a Christian type of human society which shall be the kingdom of God on earth. In this chapter we are concerned with the program which men must follow in the prosecution of this task. We shall therefore consider some of the things that must be done by those who would build on earth the city of God. I. THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN PROGRAM 1. The first thing is to accept this task in good faith and then set about its realization. That many of |