{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29912/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29912","id":"gutenberg_29912","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29912","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Sociology","Christian ethics","Christian sociology","Jesus Christ -- Teachings"],"text":"College Voluntary Study Courses\n\n                            Fourth Year\u2014Part 1\n\n                      The Social Principles Of Jesus\n\n                                    By\n\n                           Walter Rauschenbusch\n\n       Professor of Church History, Rochester Theological Seminary\n\n Written under the Direction of Sub-Committee on College Courses, Sunday\n School Council of Evangelical Denominations, and Committee on Voluntary\n            Study, Council of North American Student Movements\n\n                            The Woman\u2019s Press\n\n                           600 Lexington Avenue\n\n                              New York City\n\n                                   1917\n\n                           Copyright, 1916, by\n\n    The International Committee of Young Men\u2019s Christian Associations\n\n                Entered at Stationers\u2019 Hall, London, 1916\n\n                           All Rights Reserved\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nIntroduction\nPart I. The Axiomatic Social Convictions Of Jesus\n   Chapter I. The Value Of Life\n   Chapter II. The Solidarity Of The Human Family\n   Chapter III. Standing With The People\nPart II. The Social Ideal Of Jesus\n   Chapter IV. The Kingdom Of God: Its Values\n   Chapter V. The Kingdom Of God: Its Tasks\n   Chapter VI. A New Age And New Standards\nPart III. The Recalcitrant Social Forces\n   Chapter VII. Leadership For Service\n   Chapter VIII. Private Property And The Common Good\n   Chapter IX. The Social Test Of Religion\nPart IV. Conquest By Conflict\n   Chapter X. The Conflict With Evil\n   Chapter XI. The Cross As A Social Principle\n   Chapter XII. A Review And A Challenge\nFootnotes\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCOLLEGE VOLUNTARY STUDY COURSES\n\n\n\u201cThe Social Principles of Jesus\u201d takes seventh place in a series of\ntext-books known as College Voluntary Study Courses. The general outline\nfor this curriculum has been prepared by the Committee on Voluntary Study\nof the Council of North American Student Movements, representing the\nStudent Young Men\u2019s and Young Women\u2019s Christian Associations and the\nStudent Volunteer Movement, and the Sub-Committee on College Courses of\nthe Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations, representing\ntwenty-nine communions. Therefore the text-books are planned for the use\nof student classes in the Sunday School, as well as for the supplementary\ngroups on the campus. The present text-book has been written under the\ndirection of these Committees.\n\nThe text-books are not suitable for use in the academic curriculum, as\nthey have been definitely planned for voluntary study groups.\n\nThis series, covering four years, is designed to form a minimum curriculum\nfor the voluntary study of the Bible, foreign missions, and North American\nproblems. Daily Bible Readings are printed with each text-book. The\nstudent viewpoint is given first emphasis\u2014what are the student interests?\nwhat are the student problems?\n\n\n    The Bible text printed in short measure (indented both sides) is\n    taken from the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible,\n    copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by\n    permission.\n\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThis book is not a life of Christ, nor an exposition of his religious\nteachings, nor a doctrinal statement about his person and work. It is an\nattempt to formulate in simple propositions the fundamental convictions of\nJesus about the social and ethical relations and duties of men.\n\nOur generation is profoundly troubled by the problems of organized\nsociety. The most active interest of serious men and women in the colleges\nis concentrated on them. We know that we are in deep need of moral light\nand spiritual inspiration in our gropings. There is an increasing\nrealization, too, that the salvation of society lies in the direction\ntoward which Jesus led. And yet there is no clear understanding of what he\nstood for. Those who have grown up under Christian teaching can sum up the\ndoctrines of the Church readily, but the principles which we must\nunderstand if we are to follow Jesus in the way of life, seem enveloped in\na haze. The ordinary man sees clearly only Christ\u2019s law of love and the\ngolden rule. This book seeks to bring to a point what we all vaguely know.\n\nIt does not undertake to furnish predigested material, or to impose\nconclusions. It spreads out the most important source passages for\npersonal study, points out the connection between the principles of Jesus\nand modern social problems, and raises questions for discussion. It was\nwritten primarily for voluntary study groups of college seniors, and their\nintellectual and spiritual needs are not like those of an average church\naudience. It challenges college men and women to face the social\nconvictions of Jesus and to make their own adjustments.\n\n\n\n\n\nPART I. THE AXIOMATIC SOCIAL CONVICTIONS OF JESUS\n\n\n\n\nChapter I. The Value Of Life\n\n\nWhatever our present conceptions of Jesus Christ may be, we ought to\napproach our study of his teachings with a sense of reverence. With the\nslenderest human means at his disposal, within a brief span of time, he\nraised our understanding of God and of human life to new levels forever,\nand set forces in motion which revolutionized history.\n\nOf his teachings we have only fragments, but they have an inexhaustible\nvitality. In this course we are to examine these as our source material in\norder to discover, if possible, what fundamental ethical principles were\nin the mind of Jesus. This part of his thought has been less understood\nand appropriated than other parts, and it is more needed today than ever.\nLet us go at this study with the sense of handling something great, which\nmay have guiding force for our own lives. Let us work out for ourselves\nthe social meaning of the personality and thought of Jesus Christ, and be\nprepared to face his challenge to the present social and economic order of\nwhich we are part.\n\nHow did Jesus view the life and personality of the men about him? How did\nhe see the social relation which binds people together? What was the\nreaction of his mind in face of the inequalities and sufferings of actual\nsociety? If we can get hold of the convictions which were axiomatic and\nimmediate with him on these three questions, we shall have the key to his\nsocial principles. We shall take them up in the first three chapters.\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Worth of a Child\n\n\n    And they were bringing unto him little children, that he should\n    touch them: and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it,\n    he was moved with indignation, and said unto them, Suffer the\n    little children to come unto me; forbid them not: for to such\n    belongeth the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever\n    shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall\n    in no wise enter therein. And he took them in his arms, and\n    blessed them, laying his hands upon them.\u2014Mark 10:13-16.\n\n\nThe child is humanity reduced to its simplest terms. Affectionate joy in\nchildren is perhaps the purest expression of social feeling. Jesus was\nindignant when the disciples thought children were not of sufficient\nimportance to occupy his attention. Compared with the selfish ambition of\ngrown-ups he felt something heavenly in children, a breath of the Kingdom\nof God. They are nearer the Kingdom than those whom the world has smudged.\nTo inflict any spiritual injury on one of these little ones seemed to him\nan inexpressible guilt. See Matthew 18:1-6.\n\n_Can the moral standing of a community be fairly judged by the statistics\nof child labor and infant mortality?_\n\n_What prompts some young men to tyrannize over their younger brothers?_\n\n_How does this passage and the principle of the sacredness of life bear on\nthe problem of eugenics?_\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Humanity of a Leper\n\n\n    And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes\n    followed him. And behold, there came to him a leper, and\n    worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me\n    clean. And he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I\n    will; be thou made clean. And straightway his leprosy was\n    cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go,\n    show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses\n    commanded, for a testimony unto them.\u2014Matt. 8:1-4.\n\n\nWhenever Jesus healed he rendered a social service to his fellows. The\nspontaneous tenderness which he put into his contact with the sick was an\nexpression of his sense of the sacredness of life. A leper with fingerless\nhands and decaying joints was repulsive to the \u00e6sthetic feelings and a\nmenace to selfish fear of infection. The community quarantined the lepers\nin waste places by stoning them when they crossed bounds. (Remember Ben\nHur\u2019s mother and sister.) Jesus not only healed this man, but his sense of\nhumanity so went out to him that \u201che stretched forth his hand and touched\nhim.\u201d Even the most wretched specimen of humanity still had value to him.\n\n_What is the social and moral importance of those professions which cure\nor prevent sickness?_\n\n_How would a strong religious sense of the sacredness of life affect\nmembers of these professions?_\n\n\n\nThird Day: The Moral Quality of Contempt\n\n\n    Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not\n    kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:\n    but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother\n    shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his\n    brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever\n    shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of\n    fire.\u2014Matt. 5:21, 22.\n\n\nIn the Sermon on the Mount Jesus demanded that the standards of social\nmorality be raised to a new level. He proposed that the feeling of anger\nand hate be treated as seriously as murder had been treated under the old\ncode, and if anyone went so far as to use hateful and contemptuous\nexpressions toward a fellow-man, it ought to be a case for the supreme\ncourt. Of course this was simply a vivid form of putting it. The important\npoint is that Jesus ranged hate and contempt under the category of murder.\nTo abuse a man with words of contempt denies his worth, breaks down his\nself-respect, and robs him of the regard of others. It is an attempt to\nmurder his soul. The horror which Jesus feels for such action is an\nexpression of his own respect for the worth of personality.\n\n_How is the self-respect and sense of personal worth of men built up or\nbroken down in college communities?_\n\n_How in industrial communities?_\n\n\n\nFourth Day: Bringing Back the Outcast\n\n\n    Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto him to\n    hear him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying,\n    This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.\n\n    And he spake unto them this parable, saying, What man of you,\n    having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not\n    leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that\n    which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he\n    layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he\n    calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them,\n    Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say\n    unto you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven over one\n    sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous\n    persons, who need no repentance.\n\n    Or what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece,\n    doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek diligently\n    until she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth\n    together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I\n    have found the piece which I had lost. Even so, I say unto you,\n    there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner\n    that repenteth.\u2014Luke 15:1-10.\n\n\nEvery Jewish community had a fringe of unchurched people, who could not\nkeep up the strict observance of the Law and had given up trying. The\npious people, just because they were pious, felt they must cold-shoulder\nsuch. Jesus walked across the lines established. What seems to have been\nthe motive that prompted him? Why did the Pharisee withdraw, and why did\nJesus mix with the publicans?\n\n_What groups in our own communities correspond to the __\u201c__publicans and\nsinners,__\u201d__ and what is the attitude of religious people toward them?_\n\n_What social groups in college towns are spoken of with contempt by\ncollege men, and why?_\n\n_Is there a Pharisaism of education? Define and locate it._\n\n\n\nFifth Day: The Problem of the Delinquents\n\n\n    For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was\n    lost.\u2014Luke 19:10.\n\n\nHere Jesus formulates the inner meaning and mission of his life as he\nhimself felt it. He was here for social restoration and moral salvage. No\nhuman being should go to pieces if he could help it. He was not only\nwilling to help people who came to him for help, but he proposed to go\nafter them. The \u201clost\u201d man was too valuable and sacred to be lost.\n\n_How does the Christian impulse of salvation connect with the activities\nrepresented in the National Conference of Charities and Correction?_\n\n_How does a college community regard its __\u201c__sinners__\u201d__?_ Suppose a man\nhas an instinct for low amusements and a yellow sense of honor, how do the\nhigher forces in college life get at that man to set him right?\n\n\n\nSixth Day: Going Beyond Justice\n\n\n    For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was a\n    householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers\n    into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a\n    shilling a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out\n    about the third hour, and saw others standing in the marketplace\n    idle; and to them he said, Go ye also into the vineyard, and\n    whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.\n    Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did\n    likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others\n    standing: and he saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day\n    idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He said\n    unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard. And when even was come,\n    the lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, Call the laborers,\n    and pay them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.\n    And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they\n    received every man a shilling. And when the first came, they\n    supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received\n    every man a shilling. And when they received it, they murmured\n    against the householder, saying, These last have spent but one\n    hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, who have borne the\n    burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he answered and said\n    to one of them, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree\n    with me for a shilling? Take up that which is thine, and go thy\n    way; it is my will to give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is\n    it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? or is thine\n    eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the\n    first last.\u2014Matt. 20:1-16.\n\n\nJudaism rested on legality. So much obedience to the law earned so much\nreward, according to the contract between God and Israel. Theoretically\nthis was just; practically it gave the inside track to the respectable and\nwell to do, for it took leisure and money to obey the minuti\u00e6 of the Law.\nIn this parable the employer rises from the level of justice to the higher\nplane of human fellow-feeling. These eleventh-hour men had been ready to\nwork; they had to eat and live; he proposed to give them a living wage\nbecause he felt an inner prompting to do so. In the parable of the\nProdigal Son the father does more for his son than justice required,\nbecause he was a father. Here the employer does more because he is a man.\nEach acted from a sense of the worth of the human life with which he was\ndealing. It was the same sense of worth and sacredness in Jesus which\nprompted him to invent these parables.\n\n_Do we find ourselves valuing people according to their utility to us, or\ndo we have an active feeling of their human interest and worth?_ Let us\nrun over in our minds our family and relatives, our professors and\nfriends, and the people in town who serve us, and see with whom we are on\na human footing.\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: The Courtesy of Jesus\n\n\n    And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all\n    the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And\n    the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and\n    having set her in the midst, they say unto him, Teacher, this\n    woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. Now in the law\n    Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest thou of her?\n    And this they said, trying him that they might have whereof to\n    accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on\n    the ground. But when they continued asking him, he lifted up\n    himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let\n    him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and with\n    his finger wrote on the ground. And they, when they heard it, went\n    out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last: and\n    Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst.\n    And Jesus lifted up himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are\n    they? did no man condemn thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And\n    Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth\n    sin no more.\u2014John 8:2-11.\n\n\nWas there ever a more gentlemanly handling of a raw situation? This woman\nwas going through one of the most harrowing experiences conceivable,\nexposed to the gaze of a leering and scornful crowd, her good name torn\naway, her self-respect crushed. Jesus shielded her from stoning by the\npower of his personality and his consummate skill in handling men. He got\ninside their guard, aroused their own sense of past guilt, and so awakened\nsome human fellow-feeling for the woman. When he was alone with her, what\na mingling of kindness and severity! Surely she would carry away the\nmemory of a wonderful friend who came to her in her dire need. Why did\nJesus twice turn his eyes away to the ground? Was he ashamed to look at\nher shame?\n\nSuch a sudden, tragic happening is a severe test of a man\u2019s qualities. It\nbrought out the courtesy of Jesus, his respect for human personality even\nin its shame. _How can we train ourselves so that we may be equal to such\nemergencies?_ Would continued spiritual contact with Jesus be likely to\nmake a difference?\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nThe passages we have studied are inductive material. Can there be any\ndoubt that Jesus had a spontaneous love for his fellow-men and a deep\nsense of the sacredness of human personality? Physical deformity and moral\nguilt could not obscure the divine worth of human life to him. To cause\nany soul to stumble and go down, or to express contempt for any human\nbeing, was to him a horrible guilt.\n\n\nI\n\n\nThis regard for human life was based on the same social instinct which\nevery normal man possesses. But with Jesus it was so strong that it\ndetermined all his viewpoints and activities. He affirmed the humane\ninstinct consciously and intelligently, and raised it to the dignity of a\nsocial principle. This alone would be enough to mark him out as a new\ntype, prophetic and creative of a new development of the race.\n\nWhence did Jesus derive the strength and purity of his social feeling? Was\nit simply the endowment of a finely attuned nature? Other fine minds of\nthe ancient world valued men according to their wealth, their rank, their\npower, their education, their beauty. Jesus valued men as such, apart from\nany attractive equipment. Why? \u201cThe deeper our insight into human destiny\nbecomes, the more sacred does every individual human being seem to us\u201d\n(Lotze). The respect of Jesus for every concrete person whom he met was\ndue to his religious insight into human life and destiny. But how did he\nget his insight?\n\nLove and religion have the power of idealistic interpretation. To a mother\nher child is a wonderful being. To a true lover the girl he loves has\nsacredness. With Jesus the consciousness of a God of love revealed the\nbeauty of men. The old gods were despotic supermen, mythical duplicates of\nthe human kings and conquerors. The God of Jesus was the great Father who\nlets his light shine on the just and the unjust, and offers forgiveness\nand love to all. Jesus lived in the spiritual atmosphere of that faith.\nConsequently he saw men from that point of view. They were to him children\nof that God. Even the lowliest was high. The light that shone on him from\nthe face of God shed a splendor on the prosaic ranks of men. In this way\nreligion enriches and illuminates social feeling.\n\nJesus succeeded in transmitting something of his own sense of the\nsacredness of life to his followers. As Wundt says: \u201cHumanity in this\nhighest sense was brought into the world by Christianity.\u201d The love of men\nbecame a social dogma of the Church. Some other convictions of Jesus left\nfew traces on the common thought of Christendom, but the Church has always\nstood for a high estimate of the potential worth of the soul of man. It\nhas always taught that man was made in God\u2019s image and that he is destined\nto share in the holiness and eternal life of God.\n\n\nII\n\n\nWhat effects has this registered on social conduct? Has the Church\nintelligently resisted social forces or conditions which brutalized or\nshamed men?\n\nIt is most difficult to estimate accurately the historic influence of\nreligious ideas. They are subtle and hard to trace. But we can justly\nreason from our own observations in evangelism and foreign mission work.\nThose of us who have gone through a clearly marked conversion to\nChristianity will probably remember that we realized our fellow-men with a\nnew warmth and closeness, and under higher points of view. We were then\nentering into the Christian valuation of human life. In foreign missions\nthe influence of Christianity can be contrasted with non-Christian social\nlife, and there is often a striking rise in the respect for life and\npersonality as compared with the hardness and callousness of heathen\nsociety. This is one of the distinctive marks of the modern and Western\nworld compared with the ancient and the Oriental. Those individuals among\nus who have really duplicated something of the spirit of Jesus are always\nmarked by their loving regard for human life, even its wreckage. That\nsense of sacredness is the basis for the whole missionary and\nphilanthropic activity of Christian men and women.\n\nIt is also an important force in the social movements. Have there been any\nwidespread, continuous, and successful movements for social justice\noutside of the territory influenced by Christianity? Was there any causal\nconnection between the historic reformation and purification of\nChristianity since the sixteenth century and the rise of civil and social\ndemocracy? Does the spread of Christian ideas and feelings predispose the\npowerful classes to make concessions? What contribution did the Wesleyan\nrevival among the working people of England make toward the rise of the\ntrade union movement, the education of stable leaders, and the faith in\ndemocracy? It takes idealistic convictions a long time to permeate large\nsocial classes, but they often spring into effectiveness suddenly.\nCertainly a belief in the worth and capacity of the common man is a\nspiritual support of democratic institutions, and where the Church really\nspread the Christian sense of the worth and sacredness of human life, it\nhas been a great stabilizer of civil liberty.\n\nJesus asserted with religious power what all men feel. Sometimes it\nrequires the solemn presence of death to brush aside the artificial\ndistinctions of society and to make us realize that a life is a life, and\nprecious as such. But when we are at our best, we do feel the sacredness\nof human life.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nDoes our present social order develop or neutralize that feeling in us?\n\nPresumably it works both ways. For those who want to spread the spirit of\nChrist, it becomes important to inquire at what points our social\ninstitutions cheapen life and take the value out of personality.\n\nThe class differences inherited from the past are designed to hedge the\nupper classes about with honor, but they necessarily depreciate the lower\nclasses by contrast and neutralize the tie of the common blood. In some\ncountries the self-respect of the lower classes is affronted by degrading\nforms of legal punishment reserved for them. Forms of servility are\nexacted from servants and peasants. The practical working of class\ndifferences is most clearly seen in the relation of the sexes. Love is a\ngreat equalizer; hence it clashes with class pride. The plot of\ninnumerable dramas and novels turns on the efforts of love to overcome the\nlaws of social caste. Where class spirit is traditional and fully\ndeveloped, men have a double code for the women of their own class, and\nthose of the lower classes. It is a far greater offense for a gentleman to\nmarry a girl of the lower class than to ruin her.\n\nIt is the glory of America that our laws do not intend to recognize class\ndifferences. The conditions of life on a raw continent and the principles\nembodied in religious and political idealism fortunately cooperated. Will\nthis last, or are the great differences in wealth once more resulting in\ndefinite class lines and in class pride and contempt? What does the phrase\n\u201cof good family\u201d imply by contrast? What evidence does college fraternity\nlife offer as to the existence of social classes? How is immigration\nlikely to increase the cleavages by adding differences of race and color,\nreligion, language, and manners? What light does the history of\nimmigration in America cast on our valuation of human life in strangers?\n\nPolitical oligarchies have usually defended their rule by the assumption\nthat the masses are incapable and the few are superior. The laws made by\nthem, however, have usually shown ignorance and indifference as to the\nhuman needs of the working masses. The same fundamental adjustment exists\nin industry. It is not an expression of the worth of the working people if\nthey have no right to organize or to share in governing the conditions\nunder which they work, and if years of good work earn a man no ownership\nor equity, no legal standing or even tenure of employment in a business.\nIs the right to petition for a redress of grievances an adequate\nindustrial expression of the Christian doctrine of the worth and\nsacredness of personality? Is not property essential to the real freedom\nand self-expression of a human personality?\n\nWar and prostitution are the most flagrant offenses against this social\nprinciple. War is a wholesale waster of life. Prostitution is the worst\nform of contempt for personality.\n\nDoes our intellectual and scientific work ever tend to chill the warm\nsense of human values? Do we acquire something of the impassiveness of\nNature in studying her enormous waste of life? Do we transfer to human\naffairs her readiness to use up the masses in order to produce a higher\ntype? Jesus did not talk about eliminating the unfit. He talked about\nsaving them, which requires greater constructive energy if it is really to\nbe done. It also requires a higher faith in the latent recuperative\ncapacities of human nature. The detached attitude of scientific study may\ncombine with our plentiful natural egotism to create a cold indifference\ntoward the less attractive masses of humanity. We need the glow of\nChrist\u2019s feeling for men to come unharmed out of this intellectual\ntemptation.\n\n\nIV\n\n\nDoubtless the objection has arisen in our minds that it is not in the\ninterest of the future of the race that religious pity shall coddle and\nmultiply the weak, or put them in control of society.\n\nBut did Jesus want the weak to stay weak? Was his social feeling ever\nmaudlin? He was himself a powerful and free personality, who refused to be\nsuppressed or conformed to the dominant type. He challenged the existing\nauthorities, one against the field. Even in the slender record we have of\nhim we can see him running the gamut of emotions from wrath and invective\nto tenderness and humor. It was precisely his own powerful individuality\nwhich made him demand for others the right to become free and strong\nsouls. Other powerful individuals have used up the rest as means to their\nend. What human life or character did Jesus weaken or break down? He was\nan emancipator, a creator of strong men. His followers in later times did\nlay a new yoke on the spirits of men and denied them the right to think\ntheir own thoughts and be themselves. But the spirit of Jesus is an\nawakening force. Even the down-and-out brace up when they come in contact\nwith him, and feel that they are still good for something.\n\n\u201cJesus Christ was the first to bring the value of every human soul to\nlight, and what he did no one can any more undo\u201d (Harnack). But it remains\nfor every individual to accept and reaffirm that religious faith as his\nown guiding principle according to which he proposes to live. We shall be\nat one with the spirit of Christianity and of modern civilization if we\napproach all men with the expectation of finding beneath commonplace,\nsordid, or even repulsive externals some qualities of love, loyalty,\nheroism, aspiration, or repentance, which prove the divine in man. Kant\nexpressed that reverence for personality in his doctrine that we must\nnever treat a man as a means only, but always as an end in himself. So far\nas our civilization treats men merely as labor force, fit to produce\nwealth for the few, it is not yet Christian. Any man who treats his\nfellows in that way, blunts his higher nature; as Fichte says, whoever\ntreats another as a slave, becomes a slave. We might add, whoever treats\nhim as a child of God, becomes a child of God and learns to know God.\n\n\u201cThe principle of reverence for personality is the ruling principle in\nethics, and in religion; it constitutes, therefore, the truest and highest\ntest of either an individual or a civilization; it has been, even\nunconsciously, the guiding and determining principle in all human\nprogress; and in its religious interpretation, it is, indeed, the one\nfaith that keeps meaning and value for life\u201d (President Henry C. King).\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _The Ordinary Estimate of Men_\n\n1. How much do we care for a man if he is of no practical use to us?\n\n2. On what basis do we ordinarily value men?\n\nII. _Jesus\u2019 Estimate of Men_\n\n1. Which source passages in the daily readings seemed to put the feeling\nof Jesus in the clearest light?\n\n2. How did the religious insight of Jesus reenforce his social feeling?\n\n3. To what extent is it possible to duplicate his sense of humanity\nwithout his consciousness of God?\n\nIII. _The Valuation of the Individual in Modern Life_\n\n1. List the evidences that modern society values men as such apart from\neconomic utility or standing, or show that it does not so value them.\n\n2. Is the tendency in modern life toward a lower or higher valuation of\nthe individual? To what extent is this due to the influence of\nChristianity?\n\n3. How do the statistics of industrial accidents agree with our Christian\nvaluation of life?\n\nIV. _The Test of History_\n\n1. What widespread and successful movements for social justice have there\nbeen outside the territory influenced by Christianity?\n\n2. How do modern missions serve as an experiment station for the problem\nof this chapter?\n\n3. What connection was there between the Wesleyan revival and the rise of\nthe trade union movement in England?\n\nV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. Do permanent class differences necessarily result in a slighter social\nfeeling for the inferior class?\n\n2. Describe the class lines drawn in your home town.\n\n3. Did you feel these lines more or less when you entered college?\n\n4. Does college life tend to make us callous or sympathetic?\n\n5. Does life in social settlements seem to increase or decrease respect\nfor human nature in college men and women?\n\n6. How would you preserve your self-respect if you were a working man\nplaced in degrading labor conditions?\n\n7. Does an honor system build up self-respect?\n\n8. Have your scientific studies, and especially evolutionary teachings,\nincreased your regard for humanity in the mass?\n\n9. According to your observation, does religion make a man a stronger or\nweaker personality?\n\n\n\n\nChapter II. The Solidarity Of The Human Family\n\n\nEvery man has worth and sacredness as a man. We fixed on that as the\nsimplest and most fundamental social principle of Jesus. The second\nquestion is, What relation do men bear to each other?\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Social Impulse and the Law of Christ\n\n\n    And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, trying him:\n    Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said\n    unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and\n    with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and\n    first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt\n    love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole\n    law hangeth, and the prophets.\u2014Matt. 22:35-40.\n\n\nWhich among the multitudinous prescriptions of the Jewish law ought to\ntake precedence of the rest? It was a fine academic question for church\nlawyers to discuss. Jesus passed by all ceremonial and ecclesiastical\nrequirements, and put his hand on love as the central law of life, both in\nreligion and ethics. It was a great simplification and spiritualization of\nreligion. But love is the social instinct which binds man and man together\nand makes them indispensable to one another. Whoever demands love, demands\nsolidarity. Whoever sets love first, sets fellowship high.\n\n_When Jesus speaks of love, what more than mere emotion does he mean?_\n\n_Is love really the highest thing?_\n\n_What do you think of the epigram of Augustine:_ AMA ET FAC QUOD VIS?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: Jesus Craving Friendship\n\n\n    Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and\n    saith unto his disciples, Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray.\n    And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began\n    to be sorrowful and sore troubled. Then saith he unto them, My\n    soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: abide ye here, and\n    watch with me. And he went forward a little, and fell on his face,\n    and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup\n    pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.\n    And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them sleeping, and\n    saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch\n    and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is\n    willing, but the flesh is weak. Again a second time he went away,\n    and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I\n    drink it, thy will be done. And he came again and found them\n    sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them again, and\n    went away, and prayed a third time, saying again the same words.\n    Then cometh he to the disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on\n    now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son\n    of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be\n    going: behold, he is at hand that betrayeth me.\u2014Matt. 26:36-46.\n\n\nJesus was personally very sociable. He evidently enjoyed mixing with\npeople. He liked the give-and-take of life. He had friendships. A group of\nmen and women gathered around him who gave him their devoted loyalty. He\nin turn needed them. The denial of Peter and the betrayal of Judas hurt\nhim, partly because they were defections from the comradeship of his\ngroup. In Gethsemane he craved friendship. He prayed to God, but he\nreached out for Peter and John. The longing for friendship and the unrest\nof loneliness are proof of a truly human and social nature.\n\n_In how far is a need for others a sign of strength or of weakness?_\n\n_What connection has the spirit of a team, or the loyalty of a college\nclass, with the Christian law of love?_\n\n\n\nThird Day: Restoring Solidarity\n\n\n    Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother\n    sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus saith\n    unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until\n    seventy times seven.\u2014Matt. 18:21-22.\n\n\nLove binds together; hate and anger cut apart. They destroy fellowship.\nTherefore the chief effort of the Christian spirit must be to reestablish\nfellowship wherever men have been sundered by ill-will. This is done by\nconfession and forgiveness. Forgiveness was so important to Jesus because\nsocial unity was so important to him. In the Lord\u2019s Prayer he makes full\nfellowship with men a condition of full fellowship with God: \u201cForgive us\nour debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.\u201d\n\nAre there any personal injuries which are beyond forgiveness?\n\n_Think back to any striking experience of forgiving or being forgiven.\nWhat was the religious and moral reaction on your life?_\n\n\n\nFourth Day: The Christian Intensification of Love\n\n\n    Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we\n    ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the\n    world\u2019s goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up\n    his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? My\n    little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue;\n    but in deed and truth.\u20141 John 3:16-18.\n\n    Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every\n    one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that\n    loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Herein was the love\n    of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son\n    into the world that we might live through him.\u20141 John 4:7-9.\n\n    Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No\n    man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God\n    abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us.\u20141 John 4:11-12.\n\n\nThese are quotations from one of the early Christian writings. They are\nevidence of the emphasis put on love as a distinctive doctrine of the new\nreligion. Note how the natural social instinct of human affection is\nintensified and uplifted by religious motives and forces. Which of these\nmotives are directly taken from the personality and life of Christ?\n\n_Do you remember any quotations from non-Christian literature in which a\nsimilar love for love is expressed?_\n\n\n\nFifth Day: Solidaristic Responsibility\n\n\n    Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty\n    works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee,\n    Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had\n    been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would\n    have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,\n    it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of\n    judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted\n    unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty\n    works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would\n    have remained until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be\n    more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than\n    for thee.\u2014Matt. 11:20-24.\n\n\nWe know that by constant common action a social group develops a common\nspirit and common standards of action, which then assimilate and\nstandardize the actions of its members. Jesus felt the solidarity of the\nneighborhood groups in Galilee with whom he mingled. He treated them as\ncomposite personalities, jointly responsible for their moral decisions.\n\n_What groups of which we have been a part in the past have stamped us with\nthe group character for good or evil? How about those of which we are now\na part?_\n\n_What have we learned from the Great War about national solidarity?_\n\n\n\nSixth Day: The Solidarity of the Generations\n\n\n    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the\n    sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the\n    righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we\n    should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the\n    prophets. Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of\n    them that slew the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your\n    fathers. Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape\n    the judgment of hell? Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets,\n    and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify;\n    and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and\n    persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the\n    righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the\n    righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye\n    slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily I say unto you,\n    All these things shall come upon this generation.\u2014Matt. 23:29-36.\n\n\nJesus saw a moral solidarity existing, not only between contemporaries who\nact together, but between generations that act alike. Every generation\nclings to its profitable wrongs and tries to silence those who stand for\nhigher righteousness. Posterity takes comfort in being fairer about the\ndead issues, but is just as hot and bad about present issues. The sons\nreenact the old tragedies on a new stage, and so line up with their\nfathers. In looking back over the history of his nation, Jesus saw a\ncontinuity of wrong which bound the generations together in a solidarity\nof guilt.\n\n_Does the connection consist only in similarity of action, or is there a\ncausal continuity of wrong in the life of a community?_\n\n_Is there anything in our personal family history or family wealth and\nbusiness which threatens to line us up with past evils?_\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: Social Consciousness in the Lord\u2019s Prayer\n\n\n    After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven,\n    Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in\n    heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive\n    us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us\n    not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.\u2014Matt.\n    6:9-13.\n\n\n_Is there anything more solitary than a human soul calling to the\ninvisible Presence? Is there anything more social in consciousness than\nthe Lord\u2019s Prayer?_\n\n_Where in these petitions do you feel the sense of social coherence as the\nunspoken presupposition of the thought?_(_1_)\n\n_Could Jesus have thought this prayer if the unity of the race had not\nbeen both an instinctive reality and a clear social principle with him?_\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nThat man is a social being is the fundamental fact with which all social\nsciences have to deal. We may like or dislike people; we can not well be\nindifferent to them if they get close to us. As Sartor Resartus puts it:\n\u201cIn vain thou deniest it; thou _art_ my brother. Thy very hatred, thy very\nenvy, those foolish lies thou tellest of me in thy splenetic humour; what\nis all this but an inverted sympathy? Were I a steam-engine, wouldst thou\ntake the trouble to tell lies of me?\u201d\n\nSex admiration, parental love, \u201cthe dear love of comrades,\u201d the thrill of\npatriotism, the joy of play, are all forms of fellowship. They give us\nhappiness because they satisfy our social instinct. To realize our unity\ngives relish to life. To be thrust out of fellowship is the great pain.\nMany evil things get their attractiveness mainly through the fact that\nthey create a bit of fellowship\u2014such as it is. The slender thread of good\nin the saloon is comradeship. (See Jack London, \u201cJohn Barleycorn.\u201d)\n\n\nI\n\n\nNone ever felt this social unity of our race more deeply than Jesus. To\nhim it was sacred and divine. Hence his emphasis on love and forgiveness.\nHe put his personality behind the natural instinct of social attraction\nand encouraged it. He swung the great force of religion around to bear on\nit and drive it home. Anything that substitutes antagonism for fraternity\nis evil to him. Just as in the case of the natural respect for human life\nand personality, so in the case of the natural social cohesion of men, he\nlifted the blind instinct of human nature by the insight of religion and\nconstituted it a fundamental principle of life. It is the business of\nChristianity to widen the area of comradeship.\n\nCommon human judgment assents to the valuation of Jesus. Wherever an\neffective and stable form of fellowship has been created, a sense of\nsacredness begins to attach to it, and men defend it as a sort of shrine\nof the divine in man. Wherever men are striving to create a larger\nfellowship, they have religious enthusiasm as if they were building a\ntemple for God. This is the heart of church loyalty.\n\nThe family is the most striking case of solidarity. It is first formed of\ntwo units at opposite poles in point of sex, experience, taste, need, and\naims; and when they form it, they usually have as much sense of sacredness\nas their character is capable of feeling. When children are added, more\ndivergences of age, capacity, and need are injected. Yet out of these\ncontradictory elements a social fellowship is built up, which, in the\nimmense majority of cases, defies the shocks of life and the strain of\nchanging moods and needs, forms the chief source of contentment for the\nmajority of men and women, and, when conspicuously successful, wins the\nspontaneous tribute of reverence from all right-thinking persons. In using\nthe equipment of the home, in standing by one another in time of sickness\nand trouble, and in spiritual sympathy, a true family practices solidarity\nof interests, and furnishes the chief education in cooperation.\n\nPolitical unity was at first an expansion of family unity. The passionate\nloyalty with which a nation defends its country and its freedom, is not\nsimply a defence of real estate and livestock, but of its national\nbrotherhood and solidarity. The devotion with which people suffer and die\nfor their State is all the more remarkable because all States hitherto\nhave been largely organizations for coercion and exploitation, and only in\npart real fraternal communities. Patriotism hitherto has been largely a\nprophetic outreaching toward a great fellowship nowhere realized. The\npeoples walk by faith.\n\nWhat evidence does college life furnish us of the fact that social unity\nis realized with some sense of sacredness? Why do the years in college\nstand out in the later memories of graduates with such a glamour? Why do\nstudents devote so much unpaid service to their teams and fraternities? Is\nit for the selfish advantages they hope to get, or because they feel they\nare realizing the best of life in being part of a solidaristic group? Do\nthe dangers of college organizations prove or disprove the principle that\nfellowship is felt to be something sacred?\n\nAny historical event in which men stood by their group through suffering\nor to death is remembered with pride. Any case of desertion or betrayal is\nremembered with shame. No group forgives those who sell out its solidarity\nfor private safety or profit.\n\nInsurance and cooperation are two great demonstrations of the power of\nsolidarity. In insurance we bear one another\u2019s burdens, \u201cand so fulfil the\nlaw of Christ.\u201d The cooperative associations, which have had such enormous\nsuccess in Europe, succeed only where neighborhood or common idealistic\nconviction has previously established a consciousness of social unity.\nThey have to overcome the most adverse conditions in achieving success.\nWhen they do, the effect on the economic prosperity of the people and on\ntheir moral stability and progressiveness is remarkable.\n\n\nII\n\n\nThus the instincts of the race assent to the social principle of Jesus,\nthat fellowship is sacred. The chief law of Christianity does not\ncontradict the social nature of man but expresses and reenforces it. It is\nthe special function of Christians to promote social unity and expand its\nblessings. To do this intelligently we should take note where, at present,\nsolidarity is frustrated.\n\nFor instance, it is important to inquire how social unity is negatived in\ncommercial life. Is competition necessarily unfraternal? Would a Socialist\norganization of society necessarily be fraternal? Is it a denial of\nfellowship to exact monopoly profit from consumers, or to take advantage\nof the ignorance or necessities of a buyer? Is the law of the market\ncompatible with a fraternal conception of society?\n\nWhere can you trace the principle of solidarity actually at work in\nindustrial life? Give cases where you have observed a real sense of human\ncoherence and loyalty between employer and employes. How had the feeling\nbeen promoted in those cases and what effect did it have on the economic\nrelations of the two groups? Why is the feeling of antagonism between\nthese groups so common? Does the wages system make this inevitable? How\nought we to value the willingness of organized labor to stand together,\nespecially on strike, and what connection does the bitterness toward\n\u201cscabs\u201d have with our subject?\n\nWar is a rupture of fellowship on a large scale. The Great War of 1914 has\nbeen the most extensive demonstration of the collapse of love which any of\nus wants to see. As soon as one nation no longer recognizes its social\nunity with another nation, all morality collapses, and a deluge of hate,\ncruelty, and lies follows. The problem of international peace is the\nproblem of expanding the area of love and social unity. It is the sin of\nChristendom that so few took this problem seriously until we were\nchastised for our moral stupidity and inertia. The young men and women of\ntoday will have to take this problem on their intellect and conscience for\ntheir lifetime, and propose to see it through.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nDoes religion create social unity or neutralize it? Does prayer isolate or\nconnect? Has the force of religion in human history done more to divide or\nto consolidate men?\n\nEvidently religion may work both ways, and all who are interested in it\nmust see to it that their religion does not escape control and wreck\nfraternity. Even mystic prayer and contemplation, which is commonly\nregarded as the flower of religious life, may make men indifferent to\ntheir fellows.\n\nIt is worth noting that the prayer experiences of Jesus were not ascetic\nor unsocial. They prepared him for action. When he went into the desert\nafter his baptism it was to settle the principles on which his Messianic\nwork was to be done; his temptations prove that. When he went out from\nCapernaum to pray \u201ca great while before day,\u201d it was to launch his\naggressive missionary campaign among the Galil\u00e6an villages. Prayer may be\nan emotional dissipation. Prayer is Christian only if it makes us realize\nour fellows more keenly and affectionately.\n\nIt is one thing to praise love and another thing to practice it. We may\ntheorize about society and ourselves be contrary and selfish units in it.\nSocial unity is an achievement. A loving mind toward our fellows, even the\ncranky, is the prize of a lifetime. How can it be evoked and cultivated in\nus? That is one of the most important problems in education. Can it be\nsolved without religious influences? Love will not up at the bidding. We\ncan observe the fact that personal discipleship of Christ has given some\npersons in our acquaintance a rare capacity for love, for social sympathy,\nfor peaceableness, for all the society-making qualities. We can make test\nof the fact for ourselves that every real contact with him gives us an\naccession of fraternity and greater fitness for nobler social unity. It\nmakes us good fellows.\n\n\nIV\n\n\nThe man who intelligently realizes the Chinese and the Zulu as his\nbrothers with whom he must share the earth, is an ampler mind\u2014other things\nbeing equal\u2014than the man who can think of humanity only in terms of\npale-faces. The consciousness of humanity will have to be wrought out just\nas the consciousness of nationality was gradually acquired. He who has it\nis ahead of his time and a pioneer of the future. The missionary puts\nhimself in the position to acquire that wider sense of solidarity. By\nbecoming a neighbor to remote people he broadens their conception of\nhumanity and his own, and then can be an interpreter of his new friends to\nhis old friends. The interest in foreign missions has, in fact, been a\nprime educational force, carrying a world-wide consciousness of solidarity\ninto thousands of plain minds and hones that would otherwise have been\nprovincial in their horizon.\n\nA world-wide civilization must have a common monotheistic faith as its\nspiritual basis. Such a faith must be unitive and not divisive. What the\nworld needs is a religion with a powerful sense of solidarity.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _Solidarity in Human Life_\n\n1. Are comradeship and team-work instinctive, or must they be learned?\n\n2. Do the symptoms of hatred prove or disprove social unity?\n\n3. Does a strong sense of social unity make a vigorous individualism\nharder to maintain?\n\nII. _Christianity and Solidarity_\n\n1. Give proof that Jesus felt a human hunger for companionship.\n\n2. How does the place assigned to love in the teachings of Jesus bear on\nsolidarity? How does the duty of forgiveness connect with this?\n\n3. How does the spirit of the Lord\u2019s Prayer prove the place of solidarity\nin Christianity?\n\nIII. _Jesus and the Social Groups_\n\n1. Where did Jesus treat communities as composite personalities? Would it\nbe equally just today to hold cities responsible as moral units?\n\n2. How did Jesus trace a moral solidarity between generations?\n\nIV. _Solidarity in Modern Life_\n\n1. Where do you see the principle of solidarity accepted and where do you\nsee it denied in modern social life?\n\n2. In what way does war outrage Jesus\u2019 principles of social unity? Does it\never promote fraternity and solidarity? If so how?\n\n3. Is class consciousness a denial of social solidarity or an approach to\nit? How can group loyalty be made to contribute to the common weal?\n\n4. How should we value the willingness of organized labor to stand\ntogether, particularly on strike? What light does bitterness toward scabs\nthrow on social solidarity?\n\n5. Why is the feeling of antagonism between employer and employe so\ncommon? Does a wage system make this inevitable? Can a real sense of\ncooperation be secured? If so how?\n\n6. If a manufacturer has a monopoly, how much profit will loyalty to\nChristian principles permit him to make?\n\n7. When is competition unfraternal? Would socialism insure fraternity?\n\n8. Do college fraternities practice fraternity?\n\nV. _Strengthening Solidarity_\n\n1. How can the law of love be made the basis of modern business?\n\n2. Does religion create social unity or neutralize it? How about prayer?\n\n3. How does the Christian law of love bear on the relations of the races\nin America?\n\n4. What have Christian missions done to lead society from the\nnationalistic to the international and inter-racial stage?\n\n5. Can world-wide social unity be secured without the influence of\nChristianity?\n\nVI. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. To what extent does our present commercial and industrial organization\nfurnish a basis for experience of solidarity and education in it?\n\n2. What aspects of modern advertising are Christian and which are\nnon-Christian?\n\n3. To what extent is the law of the market compatible with a fraternal\nconception of society?\n\n4. Would a successful socialist organization create a stronger sense of\nsolidarity or would divisive interests get in by new ways?\n\n5. Which has the better inducements to loyalty, a college, or a trade\nunion? Which has more of it?\n\n6. How does the team spirit go wrong among students?\n\n\n\n\nChapter III. Standing With The People\n\n\nWe have found two simple and axiomatic social principles in the\nfundamental convictions of Jesus: The sacredness of life and personality,\nand the spiritual solidarity of men. Now confront a mind mastered by these\nconvictions with the actual conditions of society, with the contempt for\nlife and the denial of social obligation existing, and how will he react?\nHow will he see the duty of the strong, and his own duty?\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Social Platform of Jesus\n\n\n    And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he\n    entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day,\n    and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of\n    the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place\n    where it was written,\n\n    The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,\n    Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor:\n    He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives,\n    And recovering of sight to the blind,\n    To set at liberty them that are bruised,\n    To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.\n\n    And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat\n    down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.\n    And he began to say unto them, To-day hath this scripture been\n    fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at\n    the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth: and they\n    said, Is not this Joseph\u2019s son?\u2014Luke 4:16-22.\n\n\nLuke evidently felt that this appearance of Jesus in the synagogue of his\nhome city at the outset of his public work was a significant occasion. The\npassage from Isaiah (61:1f) was doubtless one of the favorite quotations\nof Jesus. He saw his own aims summarized in it and he now announced it as\nhis program. Its promises were now about to be realized. What were they?\nGlad tidings for the poor, release for the imprisoned, sight for the\nblind, freedom for the oppressed, and a \u201cyear of Jehovah.\u201d If this was an\nallusion to the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25), it involved a revolutionary\n\u201cshedding of burdens,\u201d such as Solon brought about at Athens. At any rate,\nsocial and religious emancipation are woven together in these phrases.\nPlainly Jesus saw his mission in raising to free and full life those whom\nlife had held down and hurt.\n\n\u201cAs thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them.\u201d Must the\nplatform of Jesus be our platform and program?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Social Test of the Messiah\n\n\n    And the disciples of John told him of all these things. And John\n    calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to the Lord,\n    saying, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? And when\n    the men were come unto him, they said, John the Baptist hath sent\n    us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for\n    another? In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and\n    evil spirits; and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. And\n    he answered and said unto them, Go and tell John the things which\n    ye have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame\n    walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are\n    raised up, the poor have good tidings preached to them. And\n    blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in\n    me. Luke 7:18-23.\n\n\nWas Jesus the Coming One? He did not quite measure up to John\u2019s\nexpectations. The Messiah was to purge the people of evil elements,\nwinnowing the chaff from the wheat and burning it. His symbol was the axe.\nJesus was manifesting no such spirit. Was he then the Messiah?\n\nJesus shifted the test to another field. Human suffering was being\nrelieved and the poor were having glad news proclaimed to them. Sympathy\nfor the people was the assured common ground between Jesus and John. Jesus\nfelt that John would recognize the dawn of the reign of God by the\nevidence which he offered him.\n\nWhat, then, would be proper evidence that the reign of God is gaining\nground in our intellect and feeling?\n\n\n\nThird Day: The Church, a Product of Social Feeling\n\n\n    And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in\n    their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and\n    healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. But when\n    he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them,\n    because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a\n    shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest indeed is\n    plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of\n    the harvest, that he send forth laborers into his harvest. And he\n    called unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over\n    unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of\n    disease and all manner of sickness.\u2014Matt. 9:35-10:1.\n\n\nThe selection of the Twelve, their grouping by twos, and their employment\nas independent messengers, was the most important organizing act of Jesus.\nOut of it ultimately grew the Christian Church. Now note what motives led\nto it. Jesus was relieving social misery. He was oppressed by the sense of\nit. The Greek verbs are very inadequately rendered by \u201cdistressed and\nscattered.\u201d The first means \u201cskinned, harried\u201d; the second means \u201cflung\ndown, prostrate.\u201d The people were like a flock of sheep after the wolves\nare through with them. There was dearth of true leaders. So Jesus took the\nmaterial he had and organized the apostolate\u2014for what? The Church grew out\nof the social feeling of Jesus for the sufferings of the common people.\n\nTo what extent, in your judgment, does the Church today share the feeling\nof Jesus about the condition of the people and fulfil the purpose for\nwhich he organized the apostolate? Or has the condition of the people\nchanged so that their social needs are less urgent?\n\n\n\nFourth Day: Jesus Took Sides\n\n\n    And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed are\n    ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that\n    hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now:\n    for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and\n    when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you,\n    and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man\u2019s sake. Rejoice\n    in that day, and leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in\n    heaven; for in the same manner did their fathers unto the\n    prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received\n    your consolation. Woe unto you, ye that are full now! for ye shall\n    hunger. Woe unto you, ye that laugh now for ye shall mourn and\n    weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for in\n    the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets.\u2014Luke\n    6:20-26.\n\n\nIn these Beatitudes, as Luke reports them, Jesus clearly takes sides with\nthe lowly. He says God and the future are not on the side of the rich, the\nsatiated; the devotees of pleasure, the people who take the popular side\non everything. Ultimately the verdict will be for those who are now poor\nand underfed, who carry the heavy end of things, and who have to stand for\nthe unpopular side. In the report of the Beatitudes given by Matthew\n(5:3-12) the terms are less social and more spiritual, and the contrast\nbetween the upper and lower classes is not marked; but even there the\npromise of the great reversal of things is to the humble and peaceable\nfolk, the hard hit and unpopular; they are to inherit the earth, and also\nGod\u2019s kingdom.\n\nWould it make Jesus a wiser teacher and nobler figure if he had reversed\nhis sympathies?\n\n\n\nFifth Day: Salvation through the Common People\n\n\n    In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I\n    thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst\n    hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst\n    reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing\n    in thy sight.\u2014Luke 10:21.\n\n    For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the\n    flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God chose\n    the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them\n    that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he\n    might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things\n    of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose,\n    yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the\n    things that are: that no flesh should glory before God.\u20141 Cor\n    1:26-29.\n\n\nThe actual results of his work proved to Jesus that his success was to be\nwith the simple-minded, and not with the pundit class. He accepted the\nfact with a thrill of joy, and praised God for making it so. Paul verified\nthe same alignment in the early Church. The upper classes held back\nthrough pride of birth or education, or through the timidity of wealth. In\nbringing in a new order of things, God had to use plain people to get a\nleverage.\n\n_What really was it that Jesus saw in the lowly to attract him?_\n\n\n\nSixth Day: Jesus, a Man of the People\n\n\n    And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and came unto Bethphage,\n    unto the mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying\n    unto them, Go into the village that is over against you, and\n    straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose\n    them, and bring them unto me. And if any one say aught unto you,\n    ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will\n    send them. Now this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled\n    which was spoken through the prophet, saying,\n\n    Tell ye the daughter of Zion,\n    Behold, thy King cometh unto thee,\n    Meek, and riding upon an ass,\n    And upon a colt the foal of an ass.\n\n    And the disciples went, and did even as Jesus appointed them, and\n    brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their garments; and\n    he sat thereon. And the most part of the multitude spread their\n    garments in the way; and others cut branches from the trees, and\n    spread them in the way. And the multitudes that went before him,\n    and that followed, cried saying, Hosanna to the son of David:\n    Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the\n    highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was\n    stirred, saying, Who is this? And the multitudes said, This is the\n    prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.\u2014Matt. 21:1-11.\n\n\nHere was a democratic procession! No caparisoned charger, but a\nburro\u2014though a young and frisky one, carefully selected\u2014no military escort\nwith a brass band and a drum major, but a throng of peasants, shouting the\npsalms of their fathers and the hope of a good time coming; no costly rugs\nto carpet the way of the King, but the sweat-stained garments of working\npeople and branches wrenched off by Galil\u00e6an fists. What was he, this King\nof the future, ridiculous or sublime?\n\nIf Jesus is ever to make his entry into the spiritual sovereignty of\nhumanity, will the social classes line up as they did at Jerusalem?\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: The Final Test for All\n\n\n    But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the\n    angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and\n    before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall\n    separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the\n    sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right\n    hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them\n    on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the\n    kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I\n    was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me\n    drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed\n    me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came\n    unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when\n    saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink?\n    And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and\n    clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came\n    unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I\n    say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren,\n    even these least, ye did it unto me. Then shall he say also unto\n    them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal\n    fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was\n    hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave\n    me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and\n    ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.\n    Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee\n    hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in\n    prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them,\n    saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one\n    of these least, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away\n    into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal\n    life.\u2014Matt. 25:31-46.\n\n\n\u201cWhence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.\u201d Think of\nit\u2014absolute justice done at last, by an all-knowing Judge, where no\nearthly pull of birth, wealth, learning, or power will count, and where\nall masks fall! By what code of law and what standard shall we be judged\nthere? Here is the answer of Jesus: Not by creed and church questions, but\nby our human relations; by the reality of our social feeling; by our\npractical solidarity with our fellow-men. If we lived in the presence of\nhunger, loneliness, and oppression, in the same country with child labor,\nrace contempt, the long day, rack rents, prostitution, just earnings\nwithheld by power, the price of living raised to swell swollen profit\u2014if\nwe saw such things and remained apathetic, out we go.\n\n_You and I\u2014to the right or the left?_\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nNo one can turn from a frank reading of the Gospels without realizing that\nJesus had a deep fellow-feeling, not only for suffering and handicapped\nindividuals, but for the mass of the poorer people of his country, the\npeasants, the fishermen, the artisans. He declared that it was his mission\nto bring glad tidings to this class; and not only glad words, but happy\nrealities. Evidently the expectation of the coming Reign of God to his\nmind signified some substantial relief and release to the submerged and\noppressed. Our modern human feeling glories in this side of our Saviour\u2019s\nwork. Art and literature love to see him from this angle.\n\n\nI\n\n\nHis concern for the poor was the necessary result of the two fundamental\nconvictions discussed by us in the previous chapters. If he felt the\nsacredness of life, even in its humble and hardworn forms, and if he felt\nthe family unity of all men in such a way that the sorrows of the poor\nwere his sorrows, then, of course, he could not be at ease while the\npeople were \u201cskinned and prostrate,\u201d \u201clike sheep without a shepherd.\u201d\nWherever any group has developed real solidarity, its best attention is\nalways given to those who are most in need. \u201cThe whole have no need of a\nphysician,\u201d said Jesus; the strong can take care of themselves.\n\nSo he cast in his lot with the people consciously. He slept in their\nhomes, healed their diseases, ate their bread, and shared his own with\nthem. He gave them a faith, a hope of better days, and a sense that God\nwas on their side. Such a faith is more than meat and drink. In turn they\nrallied around him, and could not get enough of him. \u201cThe common people\nheard him gladly.\u201d\n\nFurthermore, the feeling of Jesus for \u201cthe poor\u201d was not the sort of\ncompassion we feel for the hopelessly crippled in body or mind. His\nfeeling was one of love and trust. The Galil\u00e6an peasants, from whom Peter\nand John sprang, were not morons, or the sodden dregs of city slums. They\nwere the patient, hard-working folks who have always made up the rank and\nfile of all peoples. They had their faults, and Jesus must have known\nthem. But did he ever denounce them, or call them \u201coffspring of vipers\u201d?\nDid he ever indicate that their special vices were frustrating the Kingdom\nof God? They needed spiritual impulse and leadership, but their nature was\nsound and they were the raw material for the redeemed humanity which he\nstrove to create.\n\n\nII\n\n\nThere is one more quality which we shall have to recognize in the attitude\nof Jesus to \u201cthe poor.\u201d He saw them over against \u201cthe rich.\u201d Amid all the\nvariations of human society these two groups always reappear\u2014those who\nlive by their own productive labor, and those who live on the productive\nlabor of others whom they control. Practically they overlap and blend, but\nwhen our perspective is distant enough, we can distinguish them. In Greek\nand Roman society, in medieval life, and in all civilized nations of\ntoday\u2014barring, of course, our own\u2014we can see them side by side. Each\nconditions the other; neither would exist without the other. Each class\ndevelops its own moral and spiritual habits, its own set of virtues and\nvices. Some of us were born in the upper class, some in the lower; and in\ncollege groups the majority come from the border line. By instinct, by the\nexperiences of life, or by national reflection, we usually give our moral\nallegiance to one or the other, and are then apt to lean to that side in\nevery question arising.\n\nNow, Jesus took sides with the group of toil. He stood up for them. He\nstood with them. We can not help seeing him with his arm thrown in\nprotection about the poor man, and his other hand raised in warning to the\nrich. If we are in any doubt about this, we can let his contemporaries\ndecide it for us. Plainly the common people claimed him as their friend.\nDid the governing classes have the same feeling for him? It seems hard to\nescape the conclusion that Jesus was not impartial between the two. Was he\nnevertheless just? To the \u00e6sthetic sense, and also to a superficial moral\njudgment, the upper classes are everywhere more congenial and attractive.\nTo the moral judgment of Jesus, as we shall see more fully in a later\nchapter, there was something disquieting and dangerous about the spiritual\nqualities of \u201cthe rich,\u201d and something lovable and hopeful about the\nqualities of the common man. Was he right? This is a very important\npractical question for all who are disposed to follow his moral\nleadership.\n\nThe perception that Jesus championed the people can be found throughout\nliterature and art. Our own Lowell has expressed it in his \u201cParable\u201d in\nwhich he describes Jesus coming back to earth to see \u201chow the men, my\nbrethren, believe in me.\u201d\n\n\n    \u201cHave ye founded your thrones and altars, then,\n    On the bodies and souls of living men?\n    And think ye that building shall endure,\n    Which shelters the noble and crushes the poor?\n\n    \u201cWith gates of silver and bars of gold\n    Ye have fenced my sheep from their Father\u2019s fold;\n    I have heard the dropping of their tears\n    In heaven these eighteen hundred years.\n\n    \u201cThen Christ sought out an artisan,\n    A low-browed, stunted, haggard man,\n    And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin,\n    Pushed from her faintly want and sin.\n\n    \u201cThese set he in the midst of them,\n    And as they drew back their garment-hem\n    For fear of defilement, \u201cLo, here,\u201d said he,\n    \u2018The images ye have made of me.\u2019 \u201d\n\n\nIII\n\n\nWe shall get the historical setting for Christ\u2019s championship of the\npeople by going back to the Old Testament prophets. They were his\nspiritual forebears. He nourished his mind on their writings and loved to\nquote them. Now, the Hebrew prophets with one accord stood up for the\ncommon people and laid the blame for social wrong on the powerful classes.\nThey underlined no other sin with such scarlet marks as the sins of\ninjustice, oppression, and the corruption of judges. But these are the\nsins which bear down the lowly, and have always been practiced and hushed\nup by the powerful. \u201cHear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that oppress the\npoor, that crush the needy.... Ye trample upon the poor, and take\nexactions from him of wheat; ... ye that afflict the just, that take a\nbribe, and that turn aside the needy in the gate from their right.... For\nthree transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the\npunishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and\nthe needy for a pair of shoes; they that pant after the dust of the earth\non the head of the poor\u201d (Amos 4:1; 5:11-12; 2:6-7). Micah describes the\nstrong and crafty crowding the peasant from his ancestral holding and the\nmother from her home by the devices always used for such ends, exorbitant\ninterest on loans, foreclosure in times of distress, \u201cseeing the judge\u201d\nbefore the trial, and hardness of heart toward broken life and happiness\n(Micah 2:1-2; 2:9; 3:1-2). We cannot belittle the moral insight of that\nunique succession of men. Their spiritual force is still hard at work in\nour Christian civilization, especially in the contribution which the\nJewish people are making to the labor movement.\n\n\nIV\n\n\nAmong the Greeks and Romans political and literary life was so completely\ndominated by the aristocratic class that no such succession of champions\nof the common man could well arise. Yet some of the men of whom posterity\nthinks with most veneration were upper-class champions of the common\npeople\u2014Solon, for instance, Manlius, and the Gracchi.\n\nIn recent centuries the vast forces of social evolution seem to have set\nin the direction toward which Jesus faced. Since the Reformation the\ninstitutions of religion have been more or less democratized. The common\npeople have secured some participation in political power and have been\nable to use it somewhat for their economic betterment. They share much\nmore fully in education than formerly. Before the outbreak of the Great\nWar it seemed safe to anticipate that the working people would secure an\nincreasing share of the social wealth, the security, the opportunities for\nhealth, for artistic enjoyment, and of all that makes life worth living.\nToday the future is heavily clouded and uncertain; but our faith still\nholds that even the great disaster will help ultimately to weaken the\ndespotic and exploiting forces, and make the condition of the common\npeople more than ever the chief concern of science and statesmanship.\n\nJesus was on the side of the common people long before democracy was on\nthe ascendant. He loved them, felt their worth, trusted their latent\ncapacities, and promised them the Kingdom of God. The religion he founded,\neven when impure and under the control of the upper classes, has been the\nhistorical basis for the aspirations of the common people and has readily\nunited with democratic movements. His personality and spirit has remained\nan impelling and directing force in the minds of many individuals who have\n\u201cgone to the people\u201d because they know Jesus is with them. In fact we can\nlook for more direct social effectiveness of Jesus in the future, because\nthe new historical interpretation of the Bible helps us to see him more\nplainly amid the social life of his own people.\n\n\nV\n\n\nSo we must add a third social principle to the first two. The first was\nthat life and personality are sacred; the second that men belong together;\nthe third is that the strong must stand with the weak and defend their\ncause. In his description of the Messianic Judgment, Jesus proposed to\nrecognize as his followers only those who had responded to the call of\nhuman need and solidarity. He created the apostleship and therewith the\ngerm of the Church in order to serve the people whose needs he saw and\nfelt.\n\nHow does this concern college men and women? By our opportunities and\nequipment we rank with the strong. Disciplined intellect is armor and\nsword. Many of us have inherited social standing and some wealth; it may\nnot be much, but it raises us above the terrible push of immediate need.\nWhat relation do we propose to have with the great mass of men and women\nwho were born without the chances which have fallen to us without\nexertion? Do we propose to serve them or to ride on them? Will we seek to\ngain some form of power by means of which we can live in plenty, with only\nslight and pleasurable exertion? In that case we can hardly return to our\nfellow-men in work as much as we take from them in enjoyment and luxury.\nWe shall be part of that dead weight which has always bent the back of the\npoor. Is that an honorable ambition? Or do we propose to enter the working\nteam of humanity and to hold up our end? Our end ought to be heavier than\nthe average because we have had longer and better training. \u201cTo whomsoever\nmuch is given, of him shall much be required.\u201d\n\nThe moral problem for college communities is accentuated when we remember\nthat few students pay fully for what they get. Whether our institutions\nare supported from taxation or from endowments, a large part of their\nincomes are derived from the annual labor of society; tuitions pay only a\nfraction of the running expenses and of the interest on the plant. Even if\na student pays all charges, he is in part a pensioner on the public. The\nworking people in the last resort support us; the same people who are\noften so eager for education, and who can not get it. Some of them would\nfeel rich if they had the leavings of knowledge which we throw to the\nfloor and tread upon in our spirit of surfeit. To take our education at\ntheir hands and use it to devise ways by which we can continue to live on\nthem, seems disquieting even to a pagan conscience. It ought to be\ninsufferable to a sense of social responsibility trained under Christian\ninfluences.\n\nHere is a test for college communities more searching than the physical\ntest of athletics, or the intellectual tests of scholarship. Do we feel\nour social unity with the people who work for their living, and do we\npropose to use our special privileges and capacities for their social\nredemption?\n\n\n    \u201cWhen wilt Thou save the people?\n    O God of Mercy, when?\n    Not kings and lords, but nations,\n    Not thrones and crowns, but men.\n    Flowers of Thy heart, O God, are they.\n    Let them not pass like weeds away,\n    Let them not fade in sunless day!\n    God save the people!\u201d\u2014EBENEZER ELLIOTT.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _The Partisanship of Jesus_\n\n1. Did Jesus really take sides with the poor? Prove it.\n\n2. Try to prove the other side.\n\n3. Which would be safer evidence: single sayings, or the total impression\nof his life and teachings?\n\n4. What do you conclude regarding the attitude of Jesus?\n\nII. _The Church and the People_\n\n1. What motives led Jesus to organize and send out the twelve? What was\nthe historical significance of that action?\n\n2. When and how did the Church lose its working class character?\n\n3. Does the Church today share Jesus\u2019 feelings about the condition of the\npeople? Sum up evidence for and against.\n\n4. What is the true function of the Church in society so far as the poor\nare concerned?\n\nIII. _Standing up for the People Today_\n\n1. Is it a superficial or profound test to range a man according to his\nsympathy with the common people?\n\n2. What does it involve to stand up for the people today? How does it\ndiffer from charity and relief work?\n\n3. Name some men and women in our own times who seem to have stood up for\nthem most wisely and effectively.\n\n4. What are the vices of social reformers?\n\nIV. _The Concern of College Men and Women_\n\n1. How can college men and women make a just return for their special\nopportunities?\n\n2. What movements in college and university life in recent years are in\nline with this social principle of Jesus?\n\n3. What part have the university students of Russia, Austria, Germany, and\nEngland taken in social movements? Have American students ever taken a\nsimilar interest in working class movements? If not, why not?\n\nV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. Is it an advantage or disadvantage to Christianity that it began among\nthe working class? What effects did that have on its ethical points of\nview and its impulses?\n\n2. Why did the regeneration of ancient society have to come through the\nlowly? Will it have to come the same way today?\n\n3. Is it ethical to live without productive labor? Is it morally tolerable\nto enjoy excessive leisure purchased by the excessive toil of others?\n\n4. Is there any clear conviction on this question in the Christian Church\ntoday?\n\n5. Is the fact that a person has sprung from the working-class a guarantee\nthat he will have the working-class sympathies?\n\n6. Who seem to have more natural democratic feeling, the men or the women\nof the upper classes?\n\n\n\n\n\nPART II. THE SOCIAL IDEAL OF JESUS\n\n\n\n\nChapter IV. The Kingdom Of God: Its Values\n\n\n_The Right Social Order is the Highest Good for All_\n\nThe first three chapters dealt with simple human principles which are\ncommon and instinctive with all real men. Jesus simply expanded the range\nof their application, clarified our comprehension of them, placed them in\nthe very center of religious duty, and so lifted them to the high level of\ngreat social and religious principles.\n\nIn the next three chapters we shall take up a conception which is not\nuniversally human, but which Jesus derived from the historic life of the\nHebrew people\u2014the idea of the \u201cKingdom of God.\u201d A better translation would\nbe \u201cthe Reign of God.\u201d This conception embodied the social ideal and\npurpose of the best minds of one of the few creative nations of history.\n\nHow did Jesus interpret this inherited social ideal? What did the Kingdom\nof God seem to him to offer men? What did it demand of them? What\nimmediate ethical duty did this social ideal involve? Our inquiry will\nmove along these lines in the next three chapters.\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Main Chance\n\n\n    The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field;\n    which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth\n    all that he hath, and buyeth that field.\n\n    Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant\n    seeking goodly pearls: and having found one pearl of great price,\n    he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.\u2014Matt. 13:44-46.\n\n\nWhen war was common, property insecure, and safe deposit vaults were\nscarce, it was common for men to bury treasure in time of trouble and to\nforget it when they were dead. Whoever accidentally found it \u201cstruck pay\ndirt\u201d and hastened to locate his claim. An extraordinary jewel, too, was a\nbonanza. The infant capitalists of that day were wise enough to liquidate\ntheir other holdings and invest everything in the main chance. Jesus calls\nfor the application of the same method on the higher level. The Kingdom of\nGod is the highest good of all; why not stake all on the chance of that?\nThese parables were spoken out of his own experience. He was gladly\nsurrendering home, comfort, public approval, and life itself to realize\nthe Reign of God in humanity.\n\nImagine that Jesus had surrendered his religious idealism, had gained\nwealth and official standing, and died of old age. Would he have gained?\nWhat would the world have lost?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Master Fact\n\n\n    From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye; for\n    the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2014Matt. 4:17.\n\n\nThe Kingdom of God is a master fact. It takes control. When the Kingdom\nbecomes a reality to us, we can not live on in the old way. We must\nrepent, begin over, overhaul the values of life and put them down at their\ntrue price, and so readjust our fundamental directions. The conduct of the\nindividual must rise in response to higher conceptions of the meaning and\npossibilities of the life of humanity. Tolstoi has described his\nconversion in the simplest terms in the introduction to \u201cMy Religion:\u201d\n\n\n    \u201cFive years ago faith came to me; I believed in the doctrine of\n    Jesus, and my whole life underwent a sudden transformation. What I\n    had once wished for I wished for no longer, and I began to desire\n    what I had never desired before. What had once appeared to me\n    right now became wrong, and the wrong of the past I beheld as\n    right. My condition was like that of a man who goes forth upon\n    some errand, and having traversed a portion of the road, decides\n    that the matter is of no importance, and turns back. What was at\n    first on his right hand is now on his left, and what was at his\n    left hand is now on his right; instead of going away from his\n    abode, he desires to get back to it as soon as possible. My life\n    and my desires were completely changed; good and evil interchanged\n    meanings. Why so? Because I understood the doctrine of Jesus in a\n    different way from that in which I had understood it before.\u201d ...\n    \u201cI understood the words of Jesus, and life and death ceased to be\n    evil; instead of despair, I tasted joy and happiness.\u201d\n\n\nSome seek religion to escape hell and attain heaven; some to attain a\nperfect personality; some to bring in the Reign of God. Give cases.\nEstimate the relative religious and social significance of these different\nspiritual experiences.\n\n\n\nThird Day: Baptism and the New Order\n\n\n    Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet,\n    Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,\n    Who shall prepare thy way;\n    The voice of one crying in the wilderness,\n    Make ye ready the way of the Lord,\n    Make his paths straight;\n\n    John came, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism\n    of repentance unto remission of sins. And there went out unto him\n    all the country of Jud\u00e6a, and all they of Jerusalem; and they were\n    baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. And\n    John was clothed with camel\u2019s hair, and had a leathern girdle\n    about his loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey. And he\n    preached, saying, There cometh after me he that is mightier than\n    I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and\n    unloose. I baptized you in water; but he shall baptize you in the\n    Holy Spirit.\u2014Mark 1:2-8.\n\n\nThe men who were baptized by John were not looking forward to death and to\nsalvation after death, but to the coming of the Kingdom of God and of his\nMessiah. They repented and accepted the badge of baptism in order to have\na share in the blessings of the Kingdom and to escape the imminent\njudgment of the Messiah. Baptism was then the mark of a national and\nsocial movement toward a new era, and was a personal dedication to a\nrighteous social order. This original idea of baptism was practically lost\nto the Christian consciousness in later times. Every man who today\nrealizes the Kingdom of God as the supreme good, can reaffirm his own\nbaptism as a dedication to the social ideal and to the leadership of Jesus\nwho initiated it. Such a social interpretation of our personal\ndiscipleship will bring us into closer spiritual agreement with the\noriginal aim of Christianity.\n\n_Has our baptism ever had a social significance to us?_\n\n\n\nFourth Day: The Way to Happiness\n\n\n    Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye\n    shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye\n    shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body\n    than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow\n    not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your\n    heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than\n    they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the\n    measure of his life? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment?\n    Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,\n    neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all\n    his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so\n    clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is\n    cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of\n    little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat?\n    or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For\n    after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly\n    Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye\n    first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things\n    shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow:\n    for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day\n    is the evil thereof.\u2014Matt. 6:25-34.\n\n\nThis is a song of divine carelessness; not the recklessness of a tramp who\nhas lost his self-respect and his capacity for long outlooks, but the\ncarelessness of an aristocratic spirit, conscious of his high human\ndignity. God has given us life; will he not give what life needs? If the\nbirds and the lilies can make a living, can not we? It is pagan and\nlow-bred to wear out our souls with worry about minor needs.\n\nThe key to this passage lies in the words \u201cyour Father,\u201d and \u201chis\nKingdom.\u201d Man is a child of God, and that dignity gives some calm and\nassurance amid the worries of life. If we set our life toward the Kingdom\nas the supreme aim, all the lesser interests will drop to their proper\nplace. In the measure in which the will of God is done and his\nrighteousness practiced among men, the satisfaction of the main material\nwants will be easy. The Kingdom, the true social order, is the highest\ngood; all other good things are contained in it.\n\nTo worry or not to worry, that is the question. _Have we ever tried the\nadoption of a high aim as the way to happiness?_\n\n\n\nFifth Day: Sunny Religion\n\n\n    And John\u2019s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting: and they come\n    and say unto him, Why do John\u2019s disciples and the disciples of the\n    Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto\n    them, Can the sons of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom\n    is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they\n    cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shalt be\n    taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day. No man\n    seweth a piece of undressed cloth on an old garment: else that\n    which should fill it up taketh from it, the new from the old, and\n    a worse rent is made. And no man putteth new wine into old\n    wine-skins; else the wine will burst the skins, and the wine\n    perisheth, and the skins: but they put new wine into fresh\n    wine-skins.\u2014Mark 2:18-22.\n\n\nFasting was an important part of piety with strict Jews. It was an\nexpression of religious sorrow and self-abasement. Afflicting the body\nintensified this spiritual emotion. The disciples of the Pharisees and of\nJohn were surprised and shocked by the fact that Jesus and his group\ndisregarded this custom. The reply of Jesus shows the religious temper of\nJesus in a new light. He says his disciples were happy, like guests at a\nwedding; why should they act as if they were mournful? Fasting was alien\nto the spirit which ruled in his company. It would be just as\ninappropriate as to patch a piece of unshrunken stuff on an old garment,\nor to put fermenting wine in old and brittle skin bottles. The religion of\nJesus, then, was distinguished from other earnest religion by its happy\nand sunny character. See also the sharp distinction he makes between the\nascetic life of John and his own enjoyment of social life (Matt.\n11:16-19). Yet Jesus was a homeless man, moving toward death.\n\nThere seems to be a difference between the self-denial of ascetic\nreligion, and the surrender of self to the Kingdom of God. What is it?\n\n\n\nSixth Day: The Poise of Expectancy\n\n\n    Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who\n    took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five\n    of them were foolish, and five were wise. For the foolish, when\n    they took their lamps, took no oil with them: but the wise took\n    oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom\n    tarried, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there is a\n    cry, Behold, the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all\n    those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said\n    unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out.\n    But the wise answered, saying, Peradventure there will not be\n    enough for us and you: go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for\n    yourselves. And while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came;\n    and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage feast:\n    and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins,\n    saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I\n    say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know not the\n    day nor the hour.\u2014Matt. 25:1-13.\n\n\nThe Lord was to return soon and consummate the establishment of his\nKingdom. The first two generations of Christians took this hope very\nseriously. Expectancy was the true pose of Christians. Under the\nconditions of that time this was their way of declaring that the Kingdom\nof God is the highest good and that all our life should be concentrated on\nit. If Jesus lived today he could find even more effective exhortations to\nlook sharp and not get left. But is the constant expectation of a divine\ncatastrophe from heaven possible for modern minds? Must we translate that\nexpectation into the hope of moral and social development? By doing so,\ncan we still have a religious sense of a great and divine future\noverhanging humanity which will give to our life the same value and\nsolemnity which the first generation felt?\n\n_Explain what a strong social hope and faith would contribute to a\nperson\u2019s life in the course of years._\n\nHow do faith and practical social effort react on each other?\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: The Coming Joys\n\n\n    Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.\n    Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for\n                they shall be filled.\n    Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.\n    Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.\n    Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.\n    Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness\u2019\n                sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u2014Matt.\n                5:5-10.\n\n\nIn the Sermon on the Mount Jesus formally outlined his conceptions of\nethical and religious life as distinguished from those then current. It\nwas the platform of the Kingdom of God. We might expect it to begin with\ndenunciation. Instead it opens with a spontaneous burst of joy. A great\ngood was coming. It would bring a store of blessings to all who had the\ninward qualifications to receive them. All who felt the divine\ndissatisfaction with themselves and the craving for social justice and\nrighteousness, would get their satisfaction (v. 3, 4, 6). The higher\nsocial virtues, gentleness, purity of heart, peaceableness, would get\nrecognition and gain ascendancy (v. 5, 7, 8, 9). But the climax of praise\nand promise is for those who propagated righteousness where it was not\nwanted, and suffered for it (v. 10-12). \u201cThese words belong to the\ngreatest ever uttered\u201d (Hegel). They are pure religion, and they were\ncalled forth by religious faith in a social ideal.\n\nHave we known men and women who had some of these qualities, who lived\nwithin the Kingdom of God, and who enjoyed its blessings? If they have\nennobled our life, let us think of them a moment with a silent\nbenediction.\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nWe see from the passages we have studied that the mind of Jesus was\ncentered on a great hope which was just ahead. It was so beautiful that\neven in anticipation it was filling his soul with joy and he knew it would\nbless all who shared in it. It seemed to him so valuable and engrossing\nthat a man ought to stake his whole life on attaining it, and subordinate\nall other aims to this dominant desire.\n\n\nI\n\n\nHe spoke of this great good as \u201cthe Kingdom of God.\u201d Even a superficial\nreading of the first three Gospels shows that this was the pivot of his\nteaching. Yet he nowhere defines the phrase. He took an understanding of\nit for granted with his hearers, and simply announced that it was now\nclose at hand, and they must act accordingly. What did the words mean to\nthem? The idea covered by the phrase was an historic product of the Jewish\npeople, and we shall have to understand it as such.\n\nThe Hebrew prophets had concentrated their incomparable religious energy\non the simple demand for righteousness, especially in social and national\nlife. The actual life of the nation, especially of its ruling classes, of\ncourse never squared with the religious ideal. The injustice and\noppression around them seemed intolerable to the prophets, just because\nthe ethical imperative within them was so strong. So their unsatisfied\ndesire for righteousness took the form of an ardent expectation of a\ncoming day when things would be as they ought to be. God would make bare\nhis holy arm to punish the wicked, to sift the good, to establish his law,\nand to vindicate the rights of the oppressed. This great \u201cday of Jehovah\u201d\nwould inaugurate a new age, the Kingdom of God, the Reign of God. The\nphrase, then, embodies the social ideal of the finest religious minds of a\nunique people. The essential thing in it is the projection into the future\nof the demand for a just social order. The prophets looked to a direct\nmiraculous act of God to realize their vision, but they were in close\ntouch with the facts of political life and always demanded social action\non the human side.\n\nPlato\u2019s Republic and More\u2019s Utopia are intellectual productions which have\nappealed to single idealistic minds. The Hebrew prophets succeeded in\nsocializing their ideal. By the force of religion they wrought the\nconception of the Kingdom of God into the common mind of a nation as a\ntraditional conviction which was assimilated by every new generation.\n\nBut when a great idea is appropriated by the masses, it is sure to become\ncruder to suit their intellect and their need; and when a national ideal\nis handed on for centuries, it will change with the changing fortunes of\nthe people that holds it. When the Hebrew nation came under the foreign\nrule of the Assyrians, Persians, and finally the Romans, its freedom and\nchance for political action were lost, and its political ideals, too,\ndeteriorated. The Kingdom hope became theological, artificial, a scheme of\nepochs of predetermined length and of marvelous stage settings. Yet, even\nin this form, it was a splendid hope of emancipation, of national\ngreatness, and of future justice and fraternity, and it helped to keep the\nnation\u2019s soul alive amid crushing sorrows.\n\nThe people at the time of Jesus in the main held this apocalyptic\nconception of the Kingdom. It was to come as a divine catastrophe,\nbeginning with an act of judgment and resulting in a glorious Jewish\nimperialism. Jesus shared the substance of the expectation, but as a true\nspiritual leader he reconstructed, clarified, and elevated the hope of the\nmasses. He would have nothing to do with any plans involving blood-shed\nand force revolution. The Hebrew Jehovah became \"our Father in heaven\" and\nthis democratized the Reign of Jehovah. The pious Jew expected God to\nenforce the ceremonial laws; Jesus had little to say about religious\nceremonial, and a great deal about righteousness and love. Under his hands\nthe Jewish imperialistic dream changed into a call for universal human\nfraternity. He repeatedly and emphatically explained the coming of the\nKingdom in terms taken from biological growth, and his thoughts seem to\nhave verged away from the popular catastrophic ideas toward ideas of\norganic development. These changes\u2014if we have correctly interpreted\nthem\u2014represent Jesus\u2019 own contribution to the history of the Kingdom\nideal, and they are all in the same direction in which the modern mind has\nmoved. (For a fuller statement of these modifications see Rauschenbusch,\n\u201cChristianizing the Social Order,\u201d p. 48-68.)\n\n\nII\n\n\nSo much by way of historical information. Now let us emphasize again that\nthis social ideal seemed to Jesus so fair and fine that he gave his whole\nsoul to it. Naturally he would. Since he loved men and believed in their\nsolidarity, the conception of a God-filled humanity living in a righteous\nsocial order, which would give free play to love and would bind all in\nclose ties, would be the only satisfying outlook for him. He promised that\nall who hungered and thirsted after righteousness would be satisfied in\nthe Kingdom, and he was himself the chief of these. The Kingdom of God was\nhis fatherland, in which his spirit lived with God; and with that vision\nof perfect humanity before him, he kept its calm and tranquillity amid the\nenmity of men as he sought to win men to its better ways.\n\nThe Kingdom of God is the highest good. The idea of God is the highest and\nmost comprehensive conception in philosophy; the idea of the Kingdom of\nGod is the highest and broadest idea in sociology and ethics. It is so\nhigh and broad that many find it hard even to grasp the idea. Just as a\nbarbaric tribe of hunters or fishermen would find it impossible to\ncomprehend the social coherence and the patriotism of a nation of a\nhundred millions; just as the narrow nationalist of today falls down\nintellectually and morally when he confronts world-forces and relations:\nso we who are trained to think in terms of family and State, give out when\nwe are to treat the Kingdom of God as a reality. It takes faith of the\nintellect to comprehend a stage of evolution before it is reached. It\ntakes faith of character to launch yourself toward a great moral goal\nbefore its tangible and profitable elements are within reach. It takes\nmore moral daring today than for a century past to believe in the\nreemergence and final victory of God\u2019s social order. But this is the time\nfor all true believers to square their shoulders and say with Galileo,\n\u201cAnd yet it moves.\u201d\n\nAny man whose soul is kindled by the conception of the Kingdom of God is a\nreal man. Whoever loves the idea, must turn it into reality as far as life\nlets him. Whoever tries it, will suffer. But even if he suffers, he will\nbe more blessed and more truly a man than he would be if he did not try.\nIn seeking the Kingdom he realizes himself. \u201cHe that loseth his life for\nmy sake, shall find it.\u201d\n\n\nIII\n\n\nJesus bade us \u201cseek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,\u201d and\nhe obeyed his own call. The main object of his life was the ideal social\norder and the perfect ethic. Now if Jesus is our ideal of human goodness,\nis any goodness good unless it works in the same direction? If a man is of\nflawless private life, but is indifferent to any social ideal, or even\nhostile to all attempts at better justice and greater fraternity, is he\nreally good? Even a strong desire for personal perfection, if there is no\ndesire for a regeneration of society in it, must be rated as sub-Christian\nbecause it is lacking in the sense of solidarity and may be lacking in\nlove.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _The Power of a Great Idea_\n\n1. Did the idea of the Kingdom of God ever play a part in your religious\neducation?\n\n2. Did you feel any response to it in studying this lesson? Does it have\nreality?\n\n3. Suppose an entire study group should fail to see anything in it, would\nthat prove it valueless?\n\nII. _Historical Changes in the Kingdom Ideal_\n\n1. How did the Kingdom ideal take shape in the minds of the Hebrew\nprophets?\n\n2. Explain the nature of the apocalyptic hope and its divergence from the\nprophetic ideal.\n\n3. What passages seem to throw the most light on Jesus\u2019 conception of it,\nand his feeling about it? What do you think about the Beatitudes from this\npoint of view?\n\n4. At what points did Jesus clarify and elevate the hereditary hope of his\nnation? Summarize the conception of the Kingdom as it lay in the mind of\nJesus.\n\nIII. _Present Possibilities of the Kingdom Idea_\n\n1. What value would the preaching of the Kingdom of God have in\nevangelistic work today?\n\n2. How would it affect religious education and the moral outlook of the\nyoung?\n\n3. How would the possession of the Kingdom faith equip the Church for\nleadership in an age of social movements and unrest?\n\n4. How does the Kingdom hope add to the joyousness of the Christian life?\n\n5. How does Jesus\u2019 conception of the Kingdom of God connect with the great\nsocial and national hopes of today?\n\nIV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. How does a man realize himself in seeking the Kingdom? How does a man\nrealize the Kingdom in developing himself?\n\n2. Does the idea seem to offer a religious vehicle for conceptions you\nhave derived from sociological work?\n\n3. Does a social concept like the \u201cKingdom of God\u201d gain anything for its\npractical efficiency today from being ancient, and from being religious?\n\n4. Will such a concept ever be effective with the masses unless it is\nessentially religious?\n\n\n\n\nChapter V. The Kingdom Of God: Its Tasks\n\n\n_The Right Social Order is the Supreme Task for Each_\n\nThe perfect social order is the highest good. In so far as it is a gift of\nGod, offered to the individual like the fertile earth and the oxygen of\nthe air, we must appropriate it and enjoy every approximation to the\nperfect society. But what is the responsibility of the individual toward\nthe achievement of the ideal social order? What task does it lay on him?\nHow did Jesus see this problem? It is finely stated in the words with\nwhich \u00c9mile de Laveleye closes his book \u201cSur la propri\u00e9t\u00e9\u201d: \u201cThere is a\nsocial order which is the best. Necessarily it is not always the present\norder. Else why should we seek to change the latter? But it is that order\nwhich ought to exist to realize the greatest good for humanity. God knows\nit and wills it. It is for man to discover and establish it.\u201d\n\nWhat, then, is the responsibility of the individual with regard to the\nachievement of this highest good?\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Kingdom of Hard Work\n\n\n    For it is as when a man, going into another country, called his\n    own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he\n    gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each\n    according to his several ability; and he went on his journey.\n    Straightway he that received the five talents went and traded with\n    them, and made other five talents. In like manner he also that\n    received the two gained other two. But he that received the one\n    went away and digged in the earth, and hid his lord\u2019s money. Now\n    after a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh a\n    reckoning with them. And he that received the five talents came\n    and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst\n    unto me five talents: lo, I have gained other five talents. His\n    lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou\n    hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many\n    things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that\n    received the two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst\n    unto me two talents: lo, I have gained other two talents. His lord\n    said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast\n    been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things;\n    enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that had received\n    the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a\n    hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where\n    thou didst not scatter; and I was afraid, and went away and hid\n    thy talent in the earth: lo, thou hast thine own. But his lord\n    answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou\n    knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I did not\n    scatter; thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the\n    bankers, and at my coming I should have received back mine own\n    with interest. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and\n    give it unto him that hath the ten talents. For unto every one\n    that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from\n    him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away.\n    And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness:\n    there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.\u2014Matt.\n    25:14-30.\n\n\nEvidently the sympathy of Jesus was with the two men who hustled, and not\nwith the fellow who took it out in growling and blaming the boss. Jesus\nwould have agreed to the proposition that to live an unproductive life is\none of the cardinal sins. Evolution and Christianity agree on that. This\nexhortation to do good work was given when Jesus was looking forward to\nhis death and his absence. He would leave the Kingdom of God as an\nunfinished task. He wanted his disciples to carry forward their Master\u2019s\nbusiness under their own initiative when he was not there to direct them.\nThe new conditions would throw even heavier responsibilities on them.\n\nCan you translate this parable into terms of college life and sketch three\ncollege students as companion pieces to the three business men?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Call to Action\n\n\n    And passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew\n    the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were\n    fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will\n    make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they left the\n    nets, and followed him. And going on a little further, he saw\n    James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in\n    the boat mending the nets. And straightway he called them: and\n    they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired\n    servants, and went after him.\u2014Mark 1:16-20.\n\n                  -------------------------------------\n\n    And as Jesus passed by from thence, he saw a man, called Matthew,\n    sitting at the place of toll: and he saith unto him, Follow me.\n    And he arose and followed him.\u2014Matt. 9:9.\n\n                  -------------------------------------\n\n    And as they went on the way, a certain man said unto him, I will\n    follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, The\n    foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the\n    Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto\n    another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and\n    bury my father. But he said unto him, Leave the dead to bury their\n    own dead; but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God. And\n    another also said, I will follow thee, Lord; but first suffer me\n    to bid farewell to them that are at my house. But Jesus said unto\n    him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is\n    fit for the kingdom of God.\u2014Luke 9:57-62.\n\n\nThe way in which Jesus called his disciples shows that he felt he had a\nbig business in hand. It was a call to action, to conflict and loss, and\nthere was snap in it. Leaving their boats and nets doubtless seemed a big\nproposition to these four fishermen; but they did it. Matthew had to give\nup a government job with pickings. These five rose to their chance with\ncourageous decision, and their names are still borne by millions of boys\ntoday. The names of the other three are lost to fame. One of them gushed\nand Jesus cooled off his emotions. The second and third wanted to\nprocrastinate and hid behind social obligations. Note that epigram about\nthe ploughman. It is a splendid expression of intelligent and concentrated\nenergy. You can\u2019t drive a straight furrow while you \u201crubber.\u201d You\u2019ve got\nto \u201ctend to your job.\u201d\n\nFour of the first five are said to have died a violent death. Would they\nhave been wiser if they had looked out for Number One?\n\n\n\nThird Day: The Futility of Talk\n\n\n    Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the\n    kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is\n    in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not\n    prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy\n    name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I\n    never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.\n\n    Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth\n    them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon\n    the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the\n    winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was\n    founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth these words of\n    mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who\n    built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the\n    floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it\n    fell: and great was the fall thereof.\u2014Matt. 7:21-27.\n\n\nJesus evidently felt deeply the emptiness and futility of much of the\nreligious talk. He was interested only in those emotions and professions\nwhich could get themselves translated into character and action. Words\nhave always been the bane of religion as well as its vehicle. Religious\nemotion has enormous motive force, but it is the easiest thing in the\nworld for it to sizzle away in high professions and wordy prayers. In that\ncase it is a substitute and counterfeit, and a damage to the Reign of God\namong men.\n\nHow about our own religious talk?\n\nWould it be better, then, to give up preaching and public prayer?\n\n_What has the utterance of religion done for us?_\n\n\n\nFourth Day: This Camel Passed Through\n\n\n    And he entered and was passing through Jericho. And behold, a man\n    called by name Zacch\u00e6us; and he was a chief publican, and he was\n    rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the\n    crowd, because he was little of stature. And he ran on before, and\n    climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass\n    that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and said\n    unto him, Zacch\u00e6us, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must\n    abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received\n    him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, He\n    is gone in to lodge with a man that is a sinner. And Zacch\u00e6us\n    stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods\n    I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any\n    man, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, To-day is\n    salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of\n    Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which\n    was lost.\u2014Luke 19:1-10.\n\n\nZacch\u00e6us was engaged in the profitable but shady business of farming the\nRoman taxing system in one of the richest districts of Palestine. He was a\npolitician and business man combined, and the kind of man that is \u201cbound\nto land.\u201d Being only five feet one he had no chance amid a crowd in a\nnarrow street watching a procession. So he climbed a tree. Imagine a\ncorporation president climbing a telegraph post to see Jesus! This spirit\nof determination appealed to Jesus and he promptly made friends with him,\nthough he well knew he would lose some more of his reputation by\nidentifying himself with a publican. Zacch\u00e6us proved his fitness for the\nKingdom of God by parting with his accumulated graft at a single sweep.\nFifty per cent of his property given away outright; the balance used to\nmake restitution at the rate of four hundred per cent\u2014how much was left?\nHere a camel passed through the needle\u2019s eye, and Jesus stood and cheered.\n\nAt what points is the moral energy of college men and women most severely\ntested? Where do they meet their great spiritual decisions?\n\n\n\nFifth Day: Will in Prayer\n\n\n    And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always\n    to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge,\n    who feared not God, and regarded not man: and there was a widow in\n    that city; and she came oft unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine\n    adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said\n    within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because\n    this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out\n    by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the\n    unrighteous judge saith. And shall not God avenge his elect, that\n    cry to him day and night, and yet he is longsuffering over\n    them?\u2014Luke 18:1-7.\n\n\nIn most of his sayings on prayer Jesus either objected to the wordiness of\nprayers (Matt. 6:5-13), or he demanded more will and persistence. In the\nstory of the widow and the judge the odds were against the widow. Being\nonly a widow she had no pull and no vote. The judge was frankly a tough\ncase, untouched by religion and conscience, and thick-skinned as to public\nopinion. Yet the widow won out by sheer doggedness. Surely the mind that\nsketched the reiterating widow and the collapsing politician had an\nadmiring eye for energy of action. Jesus wanted that spirit and\ndetermination put into prayer. But note that he was thinking, not of\npersonal edification, nor of private benefits to be obtained, but of the\n\u201cavenging of God\u2019s elect\u201d; that is, of straightening out the affairs of\nthe world so that the wrongs of the righteous would be redressed. A keen\nsocial consciousness about the condition of God\u2019s people, coupled with\n\u201chunger and thirst for justice,\u201d can turn prayer into action.\n\n_Have we any experience of prayer concentrated on great public evils?_ How\ndoes that differ from prayers centering about our own interests? (See\nFosdick, \u201cThe Meaning of Prayer,\u201d Chapter X.)\n\n\n\nSixth Day: Twelve against the Field\n\n\n    And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\n    Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out\n    demons: freely ye received, freely give. Get you no gold; nor\n    silver, nor brass in your purses: no wallet for your journey,\n    neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy\n    of his food. And into whatsoever city or village ye shall enter,\n    search out who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go\n    forth.... And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your\n    words, as ye go forth out of that house or that city, shake off\n    the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more\n    tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of\n    judgment, than for that city.... And be not afraid of them that\n    kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.\u2014Matt. 10:7-11,\n    14-15, 28a.\n\n\nThis whole chapter expresses with immense vitality the heroic spirit\ncalled forth by the Kingdom propaganda. Jesus sent these twelve men\nthrough the villages of Galilee to duplicate and multiply what he was\ndoing. The natural leaders of society, the able, the educated, the\npowerful, were concerned in setting up their own kingdom and enslaving\ntheir fellows to serve them. So Jesus took what material he had, peasants\nand fishermen, and created a new leadership. He flung them against\nexisting society, knowing well that they would have to face opposition. In\nfact, they were destined, one by one, to go to death for their cause. He\ntells them not to mind a little thing like death, but to do their work and\nrally the people around the idea of the Reign of God.\n\nCan the men and women who are today trying to rebuild human society on a\nbasis of social justice and fraternity claim any right of succession in\nthe sending of the Twelve?\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: Doing All, and Then Some\n\n\n    But who is there of you, having a servant plowing or keeping\n    sheep, that will say unto him, when he is come in from the field,\n    Come straightway and sit down to meat; and will not rather say\n    unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and\n    serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt\n    eat and drink? Doth he thank the servant because he did the things\n    that were commanded? Even so ye also, when ye shall have done all\n    the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable\n    servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do.\u2014Luke\n    17:7-10.\n\n\nJesus often boldly took his illustrations from the facts of life even when\nthey were repellent to him. Here he holds up the joyless life of a Syrian\nagricultural laborer. After plodding all day in the field, this man comes\nhome, tired and hungry. Is he promptly cared for? No, he must first cook\nand serve his master\u2019s meal. Then he can eat what\u2019s left. Does he get any\nthanks for working overtime? Not a thank. Now, says Jesus, what this man\ndoes under the hard coercion of his lot, you and I must do of our own free\nwill. After we have done a man\u2019s work, let us go and do some more for the\nsake of the cause, and disclaim praise. That spirit of utter service is,\nin fact, the spirit in which men work when the Kingdom vision gets hold of\nthem. They become greedy for work and can not satisfy themselves. The\nstrong and inspired men always feel at the end that they have not done\nhalf they ought to have done. The last words of Martin Luther, scribbled\non a scrap of paper, were: \u201cWe are beggars. That\u2019s true.\u201d\n\nWhat would Jesus say to a college student who is chronically tired and who\nfeels that he is laying his professors and his father under heavy\nobligation by working at all?\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nIs it not a strange fate that down to the most recent times art has\npictured Jesus all meek and gentle, and theology has emphasized his\npassive suffering? Yet he was high-power energy. His epigrams and\nhyperboles crack like a whip-lash. He was up before dawn. He always rose\nto the sight of human need. To do the will of his Father was meat and\ndrink to him. His life was a combat. He faced opposition without flinching\nand \u201cstedfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem\u201d when he knew it meant\ndeath. Even when he stood silent before the court and when he hung nailed\nto the gallows, he was a spiritual force in action and men were disturbed\nand afraid before him.\n\n\nI\n\n\nHe communicated energy to others. He hated mere talk and discouraged\nfruitless theorizing. He praised energetic action when he found it, as in\nthe case of Zacch\u00e6us, and of the men who climbed the roof with a paralytic\nman and dug up the roofing to let him down to Jesus. He called that sort\nof thing \u201cfaith.\u201d Faith, in Jesus\u2019 use of the word, did not mean shutting\nyour eyes and folding your hands. He said it was an explosive that could\nremove mountains. He gave three of his disciples nicknames, and they were\nall given to express forcefulness; Simon he called Peter, the Rock; and\nJames and John he called Boanerges, the sons of thunder. He sent his\ndisciples open-eyed to face trouble; he told them the wolves were waiting\nfor them, but to rejoice and be exceeding glad for the chance of lining up\nagainst them. Let us clear our minds forever of the idea that Jesus was a\nmild and innocuous person who parted his hair and beard in the middle, and\nturned his disciples into mollycoddles. Away with it!\n\nThough the spirit of Jesus has never had more than half a chance in\nhistoric Christianity, yet it is demonstrable that the total efficiency of\nhumanity, the bulk of work done, and the capacity for heroic tension of\nenergies have been greatly increased by it. Taking it on the smallest\nscale\u2014every real conversion means a break with debasing habits, with\nalcoholism, with the waste of sexual energies; it means more self-control,\nmore responsiveness to duty, more capacity to take a long outlook, and\nconsequently better work. We can observe this in ourselves and others. We\nstill need the coercion of stern necessity and of public opinion to keep\nus straight, but an inward compulsion is added. A Christian carries his\npoliceman around inside of him. Where Christianity gets a really firm hold\non men or women, especially if there is a basis of natural ability, it\npushes them on to lead in moral movements and they break away for human\nprogress.\n\nWhen Christianity multiplies such cases, and makes soberness, duty, and\nhard work the habit of entire communities, we have a social fact of\nfirst-class importance; for the human animal is naturally lazy, sluggish,\nand inclined to live for today. The capacity to subordinate immediate\ngratification for a future good is scarce; the capacity to subordinate\nselfish advantage to a great common and moral good is scarcer still.\n\nWe can see this force working on a larger scale on the foreign mission\nfield where Christianity is a new social energy. There it is easier to\ndisentangle it from other social forces. What are the comparative results\nwhen it gets a lodgment in a single social class or tribal group? This\nquestion will bear watching during the next fifty years. The full social\nresults of Christianity will not show till the third generation.\n\nWe get another demonstration of increased working efficiency in humanity\nwherever Christianity has passed through an internal purification which\nhas set free more of its spiritual energies. What, for instance, has been\nthe historic connection between the development of capitalistic industry\nin Holland, England, and France, and the sober and frugal piety and\npatient laboriousness created in the Calvinists of Holland, the Puritans\nof England, and the Huguenots of France?\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe contributions made by Christianity to the working efficiency and the\nconstructive social abilities of humanity in the past have been mainly\nindirect. The main aim set before Christians was to save their souls from\neternal woe, to have communion with God now and hereafter, and to live\nGod-fearing lives. It was individualistic religion, concentrated on the\nlife to come. Its social effectiveness was largely a by-product. What,\nnow, would have been the result if Christianity had placed an equally\nstrong emphasis on the Kingdom of God, the ideal social order? Other\nthings being equal, a Christian father and mother are better parents than\nothers because they have more sense of duty, more love, and a higher\nvaluation of spiritual things. But if, in addition, they have a religious\ndesire for a higher social order and realize that noble children are a\nsplendid contribution to it, how will that affect their parenthood? A\nteacher, artist, or scientist who is also a religious man, will do\nconscientious work if he works under the motives of individualistic\nreligion. But if he has a vision of the Kingdom of God on earth and sees\nthe contributions he can make to it, will not that raise the character of\nhis output? A business man of strong Christian character will work hard,\nkeep his word in business, and deal fairly with employes and customers.\nBut would not a new direction be given to his moral energies if his\nreligion taught him that he must help to shape the workings of industry\nand trade so that hereafter there will be no fundamental clash between\nbusiness and the morals of Christianity?\n\nWhat the world of Christian men and women needs is to have a great social\nobjective set before them and laid on their conscience with the authority\nof religion. Then religion would get behind social evolution in earnest.\n\nThis would be no new and foreign element imported into our religion. It\nwould be a modern revival of the doctrine of Jesus himself, which has been\ntoo long submerged and neglected. One chief reason why it was side-tracked\nis that no despotic State and no society dominated by a predatory class\never wanted religion applied to a reconstruction of the social order. The\nidea of the Kingdom of God reawoke with the rise of modern democracy. Now\nis the time for it.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nThe idea of the Kingdom of God is not identified with any special social\ntheory. It means justice, freedom, fraternity, labor, joy. Let each social\nsystem and movement show us what it can contribute and we will weigh its\nclaims. We want the old ideal defined in modern terms, in the terms of\nmodern democracy, of the power machine, of international peace, and of\nevolutionary science. But we want to embrace it with the old religious\nfaith and ardor, so that we can pray over it.\n\nThis great task of establishing a righteous social life on earth embraces\nall minor tasks in so far as they are good. The mother who tries to make a\ngood home, the farmer who feeds the people, the teacher who trains them,\nthe scientist who gets the facts for all, the merchant, the workingman,\nthe artist, the leader in play\u2014they are all contributing to the Kingdom,\nprovided they view their work so, and are trying to put an evolutionary\n_plus_ into it which will lift the total nearer to the divine will. The\nKingdom is the supreme task, and all small tasks are part of it. That\ngives every man a place in it who works\u2014where is the idler\u2019s place in\nit?\u2014and it hallows all good work with religious glory.\n\nIt may seem as if this social aim of religion may depreciate the aim of\ndeveloping our own personality and of saving our souls. It ought not.\nSometimes it does for a time. But we are each so enormously important to\nourselves that we are not likely to forget ourselves, and the practical\nstruggle with temptation and sorrow will teach us to seek strength for our\npersonal needs from Christ. In time we shall learn to say with Jesus, \u201cFor\ntheir sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified.\u201d In time\nsurrender to the Kingdom ideal, toil for it, self-denial for it,\ncooperation with others for it, will have the strongest kind of reactions\non ourselves and our moral fiber. Gymnasium work is all right, but real\nwork in the open is better. We are most durably saved by putting in hard\nwork for the Kingdom of God.\n\nIn every great task a religious man is consciously thrown back on the aid\nof God\u2014most of all in the greatest task of all. Eternal powers are\ncooperating with our puny efforts. That alone guarantees that our work is\nnot wasted. We plant and water, but unless God\u2019s sun shines upon it, our\nwork is nothing. He is a fool that is not reverent and humble. We sorely\nneed this faith in the collaboration and patience of God today when so\nmuch of the best spiritual achievement of mankind is swept away, and we\nseem far away from a kingdom of love. \u201cAs the heavens are higher than the\nearth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your\nthoughts.\u201d\n\n\nIV\n\n\nHere, then, we have another social principle of Jesus. A collective moral\nideal is a necessity for the individual and the race. Every man must have\na conscious determination to help in his own place to work out a righteous\nsocial order for and with God. The race must increasingly turn its own\nevolution into a conscious process. It owes that duty to itself and to God\nwho seeks an habitation in it. It must seek to realize its divine destiny.\n\u201cThy kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven!\u201d\nThis is the conscious evolutionary program of Jesus. It combines religion,\nsocial science, and ethical action in a perfect synthesis.\n\nWhat has this to say to students? Everything, it seems.\n\nFirst, whatever is to be our particular job, we must relate it to the\nsupreme common task at which God and all good men are working. Unless we\nsee and assert that relation, we are mere day-laborers or slaves, with\nneither intelligence nor enthusiasm.\n\nSecond, anyone who, instead of loyally relating his life-work to God\u2019s\nwork, pursues his own ambition at the expense of the Kingdom and damages\nit to make profit for himself, is like a man who takes pay to damage his\ncountry. He makes the work harder for all who are more faithful than he,\nand their blood will be upon him.\n\nThird, \u201c_noblesse oblige_.\u201d If we belong to the republic of learning and\neducation, something extra is justly due from us. Here, for instance, is\nthe evangelization of the world in this generation. An organization has\nbeen created to accomplish it. Heroic pioneers have died, preparing the\nway for larger forces. Is our life fit and good enough to put into that?\nHere is the Christianization of the social order in the next two\ngenerations. What have all our social studies been for in the design of\nGod? To fit ourselves for exploiting our fellows or to show them the way\nto the Kingdom of God?\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _Our Untapped Reserves_\n\n1. How far is a person who produces nothing, of use to the community? Is\nincrease of productive efficiency the test of progress?\n\n2. Does religion help to call out reserves of energy in human nature?\n\nII. _The Energy of Jesus_\n\n1. How far did Jesus give evidence of audacity and high power energy? Has\nthe Christian Church realized this? How about the portrayals of him in\nart?\n\n2. Furnish evidence that Jesus demanded sincere work. How was this\nconnected with the Kingdom of God in his mind?\n\n3. Give proof that he demanded heroism of his followers as a commonplace\nthing.\n\n4. How did this temper affect his view of prayer?\n\nIII. _Christianity and Work_\n\n1. Has Christianity ever promoted idleness? If so, what type of\nChristianity was it?\n\n2. Taken as a whole has Christianity increased the amount of work done, or\nlessened it? Give historical proof.\n\n3. Would it raise the economic efficiency of an African tribe to become\nChristians? Would it raise the efficiency of the Mexican people if they\nadopted a purer type of Christianity? How?\n\n4. Where is the idler\u2019s place in the Kingdom of God?\n\nIV. _The Reenforcement of Christianity by the Kingdom Ideal_\n\n1. Is a call to be converted a call to enjoy spiritual peace or to exert\nspiritual energy?\n\n2. How has the idea arisen that Christianity is a \"dope\" to make people\ncontented amid wrong conditions?\n\n3. How would the Kingdom faith give religious quality to the plain man\u2019s\njob?\n\n4. Other things being equal, has a religious man more or less fighting\nenergy against wrong than a non-religious man?\n\n5. If a man passes from an individualistic to a social conception of\nreligion, what change will it make in moral action?\n\n6. To what extent is the enterprise of the Kingdom of God a dynamic\nexpression of accepted sociological principles?\n\n7. What is the special obligation of college men and women to the Kingdom\nof God?\n\nV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. Is the Kingdom of God to be brought about by an act of God in the\nfuture or by the work of men in the present? Does the one exclude the\nother?\n\n2. Does our social order call out the full energy and intelligence of the\nworking people?\n\n3. Can an overworked and underpaid workman feel that _he is working_ for\nthe Kingdom of God?\n\n4. Does the Kingdom of God necessarily involve elements of social\nreadjustment and change?\n\n5. Would a predatory governing class in the past have allowed the\npreaching of a social conception of the Kingdom of God?\n\n\n\n\nChapter VI. A New Age And New Standards\n\n\n_As the Kingdom Comes Ethical Standards Must Advance_\n\nEvery approximation to the Reign of God in humanity demands an advance in\nthe social relations of men, that is, an advance in ethics. Every really\nepochal advance must have it or slip back. There must be, first, better\nobedience to the moral principles already recognized and accepted by\nsociety; second, an expansion of the sway of ethical duty to new fields\nand wider groups of humanity; and third, a recognition of new duties and\nthe assimilation of new and higher ethical conceptions.\n\nTo what extent did Jesus appreciate these supreme needs?\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: Living up to the Old Standards\n\n\n    In the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came\n    unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into\n    all the region round about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of\n    repentance unto remission of sins; as it is written in the book of\n    the words of Isaiah the prophet,\n\n    The voice of one crying in the wilderness,\n    Make ye ready the way of the Lord,\n    Make his paths straight.\n    Every valley shall be filled,\n    And every mountain and hill shall be brought low;\n    And the crooked shall become straight,\n    And the rough ways smooth;\n    And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.\n\n    He said therefore to the multitudes that went out to be baptized\n    of him, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the\n    wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance,\n    and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our\n    father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to\n    raise up children unto Abraham. And even now the axe also lieth at\n    the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not\n    forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.\u2014Luke 3:2-9.\n\n\nThe ABC of social renewal and moral advance is for each of us to face our\nsins sincerely and get on a basis of frankness with God and ourselves.\nTherefore Christianity set out with a call for personal repentance. If we\nonly acted up to what we know to be right, this world would be a different\nplace. But we fool ourselves with protective coloring devices in order to\nkeep our own self-respect. Take our language, for instance; it reeks with\nevasive euphemisms intended to make nasty sins look prettier. We call\nstealing \u201cswiping\u201d and cheating \u201ccribbing.\u201d When we have been drunk we say\nwe were \u201csquiffy.\u201d As soon as we face the facts, we realize that what we\ncall peccadilloes in ourselves are the black sins that have slain the\ninnocents and have hag ridden humanity through all its history. That is\nthe beginning of social vision. Personal repentance is a social advance.\n\nWhat equivalent have college men and women for the plea of the Pharisees\nthat they were Abraham\u2019s children and had a pull with God?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: Expanding the Area of Obligation\n\n\n    And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and made trial of him,\n    saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he\n    said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And\n    he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy\n    heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with\n    all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him,\n    Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he,\n    desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my\n    neighbor? Jesus made answer and said, A certain man was going down\n    from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, who both\n    stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.\n    And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when\n    he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in like manner a\n    Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on\n    the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came\n    where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion,\n    and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and\n    wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn,\n    and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two shillings,\n    and gave them to the host, and said, Take care of him; and\n    whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will\n    repay thee. Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor\n    unto him that fell among the robbers? And he said, He that showed\n    mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him, Go, and do thou\n    likewise.\u2014Luke 10:25-37.\n\n\nA meaty story and a famous one. The lawyer found his own answer\nuncomfortably simple when it was taken up in such a matter-of-fact way. It\nwas suddenly up to him to act on his own advice. He tried to hedge by\nraising a new question: \u201cLove my neighbor? Certainly. But who is my\nneighbor?\u201d Who is within the cordon of fraternal fellowship with me? All\nmen of my people and religion? Or only the good and desirable people?\nWhere do you draw the line? Follows the story of the Good Samaritan. \u201cYour\nneighbor? The alien and the heretic.\u201d The logic of the reply demanded that\nsome good Jew would be shown caring for a wounded Samaritan. Jesus gives\nit a smashing effectiveness by reversing the role and showing the hated\nSamaritan as the heroic lover of his kind. To get the situation we must\nremember the historic enmity between the Jews and the half-breed aliens\nwho had stolen their land and their religion while they were exiled. If we\nsubstitute Spaniard and Moor, Kurd and Armenian, Serb and Bulgar, we may\nget the tension.\n\n_Who are our American Samaritans?_\n\n\n\nThird Day: Raising the Standards\n\n\nWe must live up to what we know is right, and we must expand the area of\nethical obligation to take in even men of alien race and hostile religion.\nBut beyond that, we need a conscious advance in the ethical standards\nthemselves. Jesus worked out this principle with perfect clearness in a\npart of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:17-48. He states the need, and\nthen shows in six cases how such an advance would work out. We shall take\nthese up in their order. Matthew has introduced scattered sayings of Jesus\nwhich serve as corollaries, but which do not bear directly on the real\ncourse of the argument; for instance, Matthew 5:23-26; 29-30. In our\nquotations in this and the following days we shall confine ourselves to\nthe main line of thought in order to concentrate attention on that.\n\n\n    Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came\n    not to destroy, but to fulfil.... For I say unto you, that except\n    your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes\n    and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of\n    heaven.\u2014Matt. 5:17, 20.\n\n\nApparently conservative Jews soon felt the spiritual freedom and force in\nthe teachings of Jesus. He seemed to them to be attacking the sacred Law,\nthe foundation of morality and religion. Jesus mentions the charge but\ndenies it. His purpose was not destructive but constructive. He demanded\nnot less righteousness but more. The lines of right living needed to be\nprolonged. The traditional standards were no longer adequate. A man might\nobey them and yet not be a good man. The scribes and Pharisees were the\nmodel church members of Judaism and experts in piety, yet they were not\nqualified to enter the Kingdom of God.\n\n_Are we also good people who are not good enough?_\n\n\n\nFourth Day: The Sins of Hate\n\n\n    Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not\n    kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:\n    but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother\n    shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his\n    brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever\n    shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of\n    fire.\u2014Matt. 5:21, 22.\n\n\nThe Law of Moses forbade murder; a man-slayer was amenable in the ordinary\ncourt. Was this an adequate expression of the sacredness of human life and\npersonality? It never even scratched a man or woman who assaulted the soul\nof another with anger and curses. Jesus proposed that these sins be\nrestandardized. Plain anger ought to be valued about as murder used to be.\nAnd if anybody went so far as to revile a brother and deny his moral or\nintellectual worth, the Supreme Court and Gehenna would be about right for\nhim. The lawyers\u2019 gauge of culpability can not get down to the subtler\nexpressions of lovelessness which break the prime law of the Kingdom.\n\n_By what methods is contempt expressed in our own social life?_\n\n_How highly do we rate the moral value of self-respect?_\n\n\n\nFifth Day: The Sins of Sex\n\n\n    Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery:\n    but I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust\n    after her hath committed adultery with her already in his\n    heart....\n\n    It was said also, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give\n    her a writing of divorcement: but I say unto you, that every one\n    that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,\n    maketh her an adulteress; and whosoever shall marry her when she\n    is put away committeth adultery.\u2014Matt. 5:27, 28; 31, 32.\n\n\nThese two cases deal with sex. The old law forbade adultery, the\ninfringement of family life, and stopped there. Jesus goes back of the act\nto the lustful imaginations and the wandering eye, which may lack\nopportunity but which are the real spring of all uncleanness. He runs the\nline of ethical obligation farther back.\n\nThe law of divorce (Deut. 24:1), especially as interpreted by the scribes,\nwas very comfortable\u2014for the male. He could divorce his wife for almost\nany cause. Her only protection was that a formal paper had to be given her\nwhich enabled her to marry again. As a woman\u2019s economic and social\nstanding in that age depended almost wholly on her family relations, she\nwas at the mercy of the man. Jesus demanded more protection for her. To\nhim the relation was indissoluble. The Mosaic provision for divorce was a\nconcession to the low moral level of the people. The ideal was the \u201cone\nman, one woman\u201d provision of the Creator. (See Matt. 19:3-8). The\ndisciples ruefully remarked that such a strengthening of the bond did not\nadd to the attractiveness of marriage\u2014for the male (19:10).\n\nWhere do we draw the line between the rightful, natural desire of sex and\nlawless predatory lust?\n\n\n\nSixth Day: The Sins of Words\n\n\n    Again, ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou\n    shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine\n    oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by the\n    heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is\n    the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of\n    the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou\n    canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be,\n    Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the\n    evil one.\u2014Matt. 5:33-37.\n\n\nCurrent morality had reached the point of insisting on truthfulness when a\nman was under oath. Solemnly to call God to witness a statement and yet to\nfool your neighbor by it, was downright wicked. But it was very handy. So\nthey developed a joyful lot of casuistical distinctions as to which kind\nof oaths were binding and which didn\u2019t count. See how Jesus ridiculed this\n(Matt. 23:16-22). Here he proposed that the obligation of veracity be\nextended to all statements. A truthful man needs no oaths to assure a\ndoubting world that this time he is really telling what is so. Oaths are a\ndevice of the devil to limit the amount of truth in the world.\n\nHow about oaths for legal purposes? Could they be dispensed with? Have\nthey done more good or harm?\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: The Sins of Strife\n\n\n    Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for\n    a tooth: but I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil: but\n    whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other\n    also. And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy\n    coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee\n    to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him that asketh thee, and\n    from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.\n\n    Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and\n    hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray\n    for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father\n    who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and\n    the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye\n    love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the\n    publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do\n    ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same? Ye\n    therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is\n    perfect.\u2014Matt. 5:38-48.\n\n\nThe Law restricted the natural desire for revenge to the limit of a strict\nequivalent. If a man knocked out your tooth, you could knock out one for\nhim, but not two teeth, nor all he had. Of course retaliation never heals\na feud. Jesus proposes to limit revenge still farther and to retaliate\nonly by acts of kindness. That is, in fact, the only way to end a quarrel\ncompletely and victoriously. It reestablishes fellowship and kills an\nenemy.\n\nThe Law called for love for one\u2019s neighbors; the scribes had added the\npermission to hate one\u2019s enemies. Jesus raises the standards of good-will.\nThe law of love applies to all. There is nothing great in loving those who\nlove us. Anybody can do that. Heroic love begins where no love comes to\nmeet it. Those who can win that triumph show the true family likeness of\nGod, and are now living in his Kingdom.\n\n_What are our personal experiences as to the utility of revenge?_\n\n_What is the difference between the non-resistance which Jesus proposed,\nand cowardice?_\n\n_Is there such a thing in fact as loving your enemies?_\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe Hebrew religion was an unfinished religion. That is one of the best\nproofs of its divine inspiration. The prophets had the forward look. Great\nthings were yet to come. As one of the most daring expressed it, the old\nand hallowed covenant, made by God at the Exodus, would be superseded by a\nnew and higher relation; God would write his law into the hearts of the\npeople; the old drill in outward statutes would disappear, for all men\nwould know God by an inward experience of forgiveness and love (Jeremiah\n31:31-34).\n\nJesus not only shared this expectation of a new religious era, but set it\nin the center of his teaching. Religion to him was not static. He lived in\na moving world. A new age was coming, and he would be the initiator of it.\n\u201cFrom the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of God suffereth\nviolence, and men of violence take it by force.\u201d John had been the\ngreatest of the prophets; with him a new swift movement had begun; but\nsomething far greater was coming; even the least in the new age would have\nan advantage over John (Matt. 11:11-19).\n\nThe popular conception expected the new age to come by divine miraculous\ninterference simply. The Messiah would descend from heaven with angelic\nlegions, expel the Romans, judge the nation, punish the apostate Jews, and\nthen the new Jerusalem, which was already complete and waiting in heaven,\nwould descend from above. That was the Utopia of Jewish apocalypticism.\nJesus never eliminated the direct acts of God and the significance of\ndivine catastrophes from his outlook. But in his parables taken from\nbiological processes (see especially Matthew 13) he developed a conception\nof continuous and quiet growth, culminating at last in the judgment act of\nGod. The Kingdom of God, he said, is like a farmer who sows his grain and\nlets the forces of nature work; he goes about his daily tasks, and all the\ntime the tiny blades come up, the ear forms and gets heavy, and then comes\nthe harvest (Mark 4:26-29). Jesus was working his way toward evolutionary\nconceptions. They were so new to his followers that he put them in parable\nform to avoid antagonism.\n\nSuch a conception of the Kingdom brought it closer to human action. It was\nalready at work; it was in one sense already present (Luke 17:20-21). It\nwas possible then to help it along.\n\nThe most obvious duty was for every man to clean up his own backyard and\nrepent of his sins. Every one should approximate the life of the Kingdom\nby living now as he would expect to live then. But, as we have seen from\nhis sayings, Jesus went far beyond this. He demanded an elevation of the\naccepted ethical standards. It was not simply a matter of erring and\nlagging individuals, but of the socialized norms of conduct. He had deep\nreverence and loyalty for the religion of his nation, and never told his\nfollowers to break with it. But he asserted boldly that the customary\nethics of Judaism, based on the Decalogue and its interpretation by the\nJewish theologians, was not good enough. It was good as far as it went,\nand he had no destructive criticism of it, but it needed to be \u201cfulfilled\u201d\nand to have its lines prolonged.\n\nWe have studied the six sample instances which he offered in order to\nexplain his principle of moral and social progress. In each case he\naccepts the law as it stood, but asks for more of the same thing, more\nrespect for personality, more reverence for womanhood, more stability for\nthe home, more truthfulness, more peacefulness, more love. Thus he\ncombined continuity with progress, conservatism with radicalism.\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe platform for ethical progress laid down in the Sermon on the Mount is\na great platform. When Tolstoi first realized the social significance of\nthese simple sentences, it acted as a revelation which changed his life.\nEven men who reject the supernatural claims of Christianity uncover before\nthe Sermon on the Mount. Yet its fate is tragic. It has not been \u201cdamned\nwith faint praise,\u201d but made ineffective by universal praise. Its\ncommandments are lifted so high that nobody feels under obligations to act\non them. Only small sections of the Christian Church have taken the\nsayings on oaths, non-resistance, and love of enemies to mean what they\nsay and to be obligatory. Yet all feel that the line of ethical and social\nadvance must lie in the direction traced by Jesus, and if society could\nonly climb out of the present pit of predatory selfishness and meanness to\nthat level, it would be heaven.\n\nDo you and I believe in it? Do we believe that it is not enough to keep\nout of the spiritual hell and damnation of adultery, but that a clean mind\nwould be the most efficient and cheerful mind? Do we believe that a man\nwho forgives and keeps sweet is happier and safer than a man who always\nresents things and stirs the witches\u2019 caldron of hate in his soul? If a\nman loved his enemy and turned the other cheek, would he be everybody\u2019s\ndoor-mat or everybody\u2019s temple of refuge?\n\nSuppose we mark for the present those parts which we are willing to accept\nas our own standards of action. If there are portions which do not seem\npracticable, let us post them in our minds as debatable propositions, as\npoints to be tested by the experience of coming years, or as working\nhypotheses in the science of living.\n\nBut whatever we may think of single points, let us stick to the leading\nthought of Jesus, that every advance toward the Kingdom of God, that is,\ntoward the true social order, involves a raising of the ethical standards\naccepted by society. This is a principle of social progress which every\nleading intellect ought to know by heart.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nWhen Jesus offered his six sample cases of ethical progress, he had no\nintention of exhausting the principle of advance which he laid down. There\nwas more to say about the Jewish law. It is now for his followers to treat\nthe inherited ethical conceptions of traditional Christianity with the\nsame combination of reverence and courage with which he treated the Jewish\nlaw.\n\nFrom the beginning Christianity taught self-control and the mastery of the\nspirit over physical desires. It always condemned drunkenness. But ancient\nChristianity never demanded abstinence from fermented drink. With modern\nmethods of manufacturing alcoholic drinks and modern capitalistic methods\nof pushing their sale, the danger has become more pressing. With modern\nscientific knowledge the physiological and social problems of drink have\nbecome clearer. Modern life demands an undrugged nervous system for quick\nand steady reactions. It was said of old time, \u201cThou shalt not get drunk\u201d;\nbut today the spirit of Christianity and modern life says, \u201cThou shalt not\ndrink nor sell intoxicants at all.\u201d\n\nIn every case in which the interests of woman came before Jesus, he took\nher side. At that time woman was the suppressed half of humanity. The\nattitude of historic Christianity has been a mixture between his spirit\nand the spirit of the patriarchal family. Today Christianity is plainly\nprolonging the line of respect and spiritual valuation to the point of\nequality between men and women\u2014and beyond.\n\nFrom the beginning an emancipating force resided in Christianity which was\nbound to register its effects in political life. But in an age of\ndespotism it might have to confine its political morality to the duty of\npatient submission, and content itself with offering little sanctuaries of\nfreedom to the oppressed in the Christian fraternities. Today, in the age\nof democracy, it has become immoral to endure private ownership of\ngovernment. It is no longer a sufficient righteousness to live a good life\nin private. Christianity needs an ethic of public life.\n\nIt was said of old \u201cThou shalt not commit murder.\u201d It is said to us, \u201cYe\nshall not wear down life in the young by premature hard labor; nor let the\nfear of poverty freeze the fountain of life; and ye shall put a stop to\nwar.\u201d\n\nIt was said of old, \u201cThou shalt not steal.\u201d It is said to us, \u201cYe shall\ntake no unearned gain from your fellows, but pay to society in productive\nlabor what ye take from it in goods.\u201d\n\n\nIV\n\n\nThis matter of raising the moral standards of society is preeminently an\naffair of the young. They must do it or it will never be done. The Sermon\non the Mount was spoken by a young man, and it moves with the impetuous\nvirility of youth. The old are water-logged physically. They are mentally\nbound up with the institutions inside of which they have spent a lifetime,\nand they want to enjoy in peace the wealth and position they have\nattained. We shall be just the same forty years from now. But while we are\nyoung is the time to make a forward run with the flag of Christ, the\nbanner of justice and love, and plant it on the heights yonder. We must\nnot only be better men and women than we are now. We must leave a better\nworld behind us when we are through with it. Whatever we affirm in our\ngrowing years will work out in some fashion in our years of maturity and\npower. If fifty thousand college men and women a year would range\nthemselves alongside of Jesus Christ, look at our present world as\nopen-eyed as he looked at his world, see where the social standards of\nconduct are in contradiction with his spirit and with modern need, and\nwork to raise them, the world would feel the effect in ten years. And\nthose who would strive in that way would live by faith in the higher\ncommonwealth of God and have some of its nobility of spirit.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _Living Up to the Old Standards_\n\n1. What would happen if a college community began to live up to the\nstandards of work and honor which all acknowledge?\n\n2. Does human nature welcome a moral advance?\n\nII. _The Ethical Program of Jesus_\n\n1. What advance does Jesus\u2019 program make necessary? State the main\nprinciple in Matt. 5:17-48, and the six applications made by Jesus\nhimself. How was this principle connected with his idea of the Kingdom?\n\n2. Can we agree with the principle? How far can we go with Jesus in his\napplication?\n\n3. Would a man get more or less satisfaction out of life if he obeyed\nthese maxims in private life?\n\n4. How far could a man hold his own if he obeyed them in a reasonable way\nin business or in public life? If a man loved his enemies and turned the\nother cheek, would he be everybody\u2019s doormat or everybody\u2019s friend and\nrefuge?\n\nIII. _Raising the Standards Today_\n\n1. On what ethical questions have we come to the point where the moral\nstandards accepted by society can be and must be raised?\n\n2. If you could purchase one single advance by your life, what would you\nchoose?\n\n3. How does an expansion of the area of full social obligation operate to\nraise the standards of conduct? Who is my neighbor, and who is not?\n\nIV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. A new intellectual age has opened with the rise of modern science; what\nnew moral standards should be the result of our new knowledge?\n\n2. A new economic age opened with the invention of power machinery and the\nsocial organization of labor; what new moral standards should have been\nthe result of the new wealth of civilization?\n\n3. A new political era opened with the rise of democracy; what new moral\nstandards should be achieved in the life of States and cities?\n\n4. A new era began in world-wide relations with the beginning of\nsteam-carried commerce; what new standards are needed for international\nand inter-racial relations?\n\n\n\n\n\nPART III. THE RECALCITRANT SOCIAL FORCES\n\n\n\n\nChapter VII. Leadership For Service\n\n\n_Ambition Must Get Its Satisfaction by Serving Humanity_\n\nThe Kingdom of God was an ideal. If it was to be turned into concrete\nrealities, it would encounter the recalcitrant and stubborn instincts of\nhuman nature and the conservative forces of society. Where did Jesus\nlocate the obstacles? At what points was he aware of resistance? Did he\nrealize the force of ambition and the love of power? Did he gauge the pull\nof the property instinct? Did he feel religion as a help or a hindrance in\nrealizing the Kingdom of God? These questions we shall follow up in three\nlessons.\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Trustee\n\n\n    And Peter said, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even\n    unto all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise\n    steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them\n    their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom\n    his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto\n    you, that he will set him over all that he hath. But if that\n    servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and\n    shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to\n    eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant shall\n    come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he\n    knoweth not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion\n    with the unfaithful. And that servant, who knew his lord\u2019s will,\n    and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten\n    with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of\n    stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much\n    is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom they commit\n    much, of him will they ask the more.\u2014Luke 12:41-48.\n\n\nThe preceding verses (v. 35-40) dealt with the faithfulness of the rank\nand file; this parable deals with the responsibility of official position\nand sketches the alternative of selfish and serviceable leadership. The\nhead steward had charge of a great estate, directing the labor of workmen\nand maids, dealing out supplies, and controlling the welfare and happiness\nof all. The absence of the master made his authority for the time\nabsolute. Would he use it for the good of all? If so, wider scope and\nhigher honor would come to him. Or would he become intoxicated with power,\ntake things easy, boss his fellow-servants around, and become a petty\ntyrant? If so, he would get what was coming to him. Every man\u2019s duty is\nmeasured by his knowledge and by his power. If, therefore, a man rises to\nleadership, and finds his elbow-room enlarging, let him stiffen his sense\nof duty to correspond, or there will be trouble. Degeneration by power is\nwritten all over history.\n\nThe functions of a head steward belong to the age of great landowners. How\nwould you modernize this parable to express the same ideas?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: Preparing for the Use of Power\n\n\n    Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be\n    tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty\n    nights, he afterward hungered. And the tempter came and said unto\n    him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become\n    bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live\n    by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth\n    of God. Then the devil taketh him into the holy city; and he set\n    him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou art\n    the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written,\n\n    He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and,\n\n    On their hands they shall bear thee up,\n    Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone.\n\n    Jesus said unto him, Again it is written, Thou shalt not make\n    trial of the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him unto an\n    exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the\n    world, and the glory of them; and he said unto him, All these\n    things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.\n    Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is\n    written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt\n    thou serve.\u2014Matt.4:1-10.\n\n\nThe baptism of Jesus was an act of dedication to the coming reign of God,\nand it brought him a deep spiritual experience. He came out of it with the\nsense of an immediate mission, of being called to a supreme leadership,\nand with the consciousness of power to correspond with his destiny. At\nonce he confronted the question: How would he employ his Messianic power?\nBy what means would he obtain leadership? In the desert his mind was\nconcentrated on these problems. This story displays the temptations of a\nleader, and sums up his settlement on three points: first, he realized\nthat he must not swerve aside for personal gratification, but must serve\nthe will of God only; second, he must not debase his power by playing for\npopularity by means of spectacular, miraculous display; third, he must not\nwin his leadership by methods that would mortgage him to the prince of\nthis world, for instance by the use of force.\n\nHow would these points apply to a young man seeking political office,\nintellectual eminence, or artistic achievement?\n\n_Have we ever had a time of religious concentration to consider the\nproblems of our future leadership?_\n\n\n\nThird Day: The New Principle of Leadership\n\n\n    Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons,\n    worshipping him, and asking a certain thing of him. And he said\n    unto her, What wouldest thou? She saith unto him, Command that\n    these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy\n    left hand, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know\n    not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I am about to\n    drink? They say unto him, We are able. He saith unto them, My cup\n    indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left\n    hand, is not mine to give; but it is for them for whom it hath\n    been prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were\n    moved with indignation concerning the two brethren. But Jesus\n    called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the\n    Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise\n    authority over them. Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever\n    would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever\n    would be first among you shall be your servant: even as the Son of\n    man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give\n    his life a ransom for many.\u2014Matt. 20:20-28.\n\n\nThis passage is fundamental for our subject. It is the clearest\nformulation of the social principle involved in leadership. It contrasts\ntwo opposite types of leadership throughout human history. Salome and her\nsons thought Jesus was going to Jerusalem to inaugurate his Kingdom. They\nasked for an advance pledge assuring them of the chief place. Jesus\nreplied that that place would not go by favoritism. There is a price to be\npaid for leadership in his reign, and God alone will allot the final\nhonors. He felt in their request a relapse into conceptions that he\ndetested. In all political organizations he saw the tyrannical use of\npower over the people. There must be an end of that in the new social\norder. Ambition must seek its satisfaction by distinguished service, and\nonly extra-hazardous service shall win honor. He himself proposed to be a\nleader of that new type, and to give his life as a ransom for the\nemancipation of the people.\n\nOur Master here offers each of us the conscious choice between two\nprinciples of action. _Have we made our choice?_\n\nHe offers a norm for estimating the real value of men in public life.\n_Have we ever tried to apply it?_\n\n\n\nFourth Day: The History of a Governing Class\n\n\n    Hear another parable: There was a man that was a householder, who\n    planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a\n    winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen,\n    and went into another country. And when the season of the fruits\n    drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, to receive his\n    fruits. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and\n    killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants\n    more than the first: and they did unto them in like manner. But\n    afterward he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence\n    my son. But the husbandmen, when they saw the son, said among\n    themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his\n    inheritance. And they took him, and cast him forth out of the\n    vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard\n    shall come, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto\n    him, He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will let\n    out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the\n    fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read\n    in the scriptures,\n\n    The stone which the builders rejected,\n    The same was made the head of the corner;\n    This was from the Lord,\n\n    And it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The\n    kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to\n    a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And he that falleth on\n    this stone shall be broken to pieces: but on whomsoever it shall\n    fall, it will scatter him as dust. And when the chief priests and\n    the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of\n    them. And when they sought to lay hold on him, they feared the\n    multitudes, because they took him for a prophet.\u2014Matt. 21:33-46.\n\n\nA delegation of the chief priests, lawyers, and elders challenged the\nauthority of Jesus to act as he did. He replied by challenging their\nauthority to act as they did. The vineyard parable sums up his view of the\nmoral history of the governing class in his nation. It was like a group of\nmen who had rented a vineyard on shares, but took advantage of the owner\u2019s\nabsence to embezzle his share, insolently to beat up his representatives,\nand to put themselves in possession of the farm. Every demand of God for\nrighteousness in the history of Israel had been resisted by those in\npower. What title, then, did they have to the rights they claimed? Unless\nthey fulfilled the function of true leaders, why should they not be put\nout of power and brought to justice? In this passage, then, we have a\ncharacterization of leaders who take the profits and honors of leadership,\nwithout performing its higher duties to God and humanity.\n\nIs there any connection between this challenge of Jesus, and the\nfunctional theories of society and the evolutionary conception of history?\n\n\n\nFifth Day: An Indictment of a Governing Class\n\n\n    Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying,\n    The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses\u2019 seat, all things\n    therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do\n    not ye after their works; for they say, and do not. Yea, they bind\n    heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men\u2019s\n    shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their\n    finger. But all their works they do to be seen of men: for they\n    make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their\n    garments, and love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats\n    in the synagogues, and the salutations in the marketplaces, and to\n    be called of men, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is\n    your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father\n    on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven.\n    Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the\n    Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.\n    And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever\n    shall humble himself shall be exalted.\n\n    But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye\n    shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in\n    yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to\n    enter.\u2014Matt. 23:1-13.\n\n\nThe invective against the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 23) is a\ncharacterization of selfish leadership in the field of religion. Its\nfundamental elements have remained the same in all religions and through\nall history: fine talk and little action; religion turned into a law and a\nburden, in order to hold the people in obedience to the interests of the\nleaders; pride and ambition exploiting religion to get honors. Jesus tells\nthe people to revolt against the titles in which this domination had found\ndecorative satisfaction. He demands democracy, humility, brotherliness.\n\nDoes this description justly apply to the Christian ministry today, or has\nthere been a great historical change by which that profession has become a\nprofession of service?\n\nWhere in modern social life would the invective of Jesus against selfish\nleadership still be true?\n\n\n\nSixth Day: The Lost Leader\n\n\n    And in these days Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, and\n    said (and there was a multitude of persons gathered together,\n    about a hundred and twenty), Brethren, it was needful that the\n    scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spake before\n    by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to them that\n    took Jesus. For he was numbered among us, and received his portion\n    in this ministry. (Now this man obtained a field with the reward\n    of his iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the\n    midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all\n    the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch that in their language that\n    field was called Akeldama, that is, The field of blood.) For it is\n    written in the book of Psalms,\n\n    Let his habitation be made desolate,\n    And let no man dwell therein:\n\n    and,\n\n    His office let another take.\u2014Acts 1:15-20.\n\n\nThe character and motives of Judas remain an unsolved riddle. The Gospels\nleave no doubt that money played a part with him. But could a man whom\nJesus selected and trusted be actuated by so sordid a motive alone? Was he\nperhaps embittered because he had staked his ambition on the Galilean\nMessiah and Jesus failed to act the part assigned to him? Was he hoping to\nforce him to revolutionary action? We may be sure that Judas was no\nslinking thief only. In Rubens\u2019 picture of the Last Supper at Milano Judas\nhas a strong and noble face, but troubled and restless eyes, telling of a\nhurt soul. The other disciples were deeply impressed by his betrayal of\nthe Master and of the common cause. Judas is the type of the lost leader.\n\u201cJust for a handful of silver he left us, just for a ribbon to stick in\nhis coat.\u201d Some leaders blunder and learn better; some sag to lower levels\nbut plod on; some sell out. Judas could not bear to live. Read James\nRussell Lowell\u2019s \u201cExtreme Unction.\u201d\n\nHave you known of cases today of men who have abandoned or betrayed a\ncause to get office or income? Any who abandon humanity itself to get\nthirty pieces for themselves?\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: The New Order of Leaders\n\n\n    And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in\n    their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and\n    healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. But when\n    he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them,\n    because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a\n    shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest indeed is\n    plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of\n    the harvest, that he send forth laborers into his harvest.\n\n    And he called unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them\n    authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all\n    manner of disease and all manner of sickness.\n\n    Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon,\n    who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of\n    Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas,\n    and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alph\u00e6us, and Thadd\u00e6us;\n    Simon the Canan\u00e6an, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed\n    him.\u2014Matt. 9:35-10:4.\n\n\nWe have studied part of this passage before as an expression of the social\nfeeling of Jesus. Note now that it was their leaderless condition which\nimpressed him. Plenty of priests, lawyers, and experts on the Bible, but\nno friendly shepherds for the people. When he created the apostolate, he\ninitiated a new order of leadership, a band of men who would serve and not\nexploit. Read the instructions he gave them (Chap. 10), and see how\ncarefully he fences out selfish gain. Service versus exploitation, that is\none of the tests of all who claim leadership in his name. We realize that\nin the field of religion. But why should not the same test be made in\nprofessional, political, and business life? Predatory action may not be as\nglaringly shameful there, but is it any the more moral?\n\n_Now what about you and me?_\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe desire to lead and excel is natural and right. Because men are\ngregarious, they need leadership for their social groups, and social\nprogress depends largely on securing adequate leaders. Those who have the\nnatural gifts for leadership\u2014and also those who merely think they\nhave\u2014usually have a keen desire for its satisfactions. College life is a\nminiature world of criss-cross ambitions and of contrivances for trying\nout leaders.\n\nJesus did not demand self-effacement and the suppression of ability. He\nwelcomed evidences of noble self-assertion. His own Messianic call was a\nsummons to the highest leadership. His temptations were the settlement of\nleadership problems. His final lament over the city of Jerusalem was a\nburst of sorrow because he had failed to win his people to follow him.\n\nNow, in moving about among men to win them for the Kingdom, Jesus\nencountered the leaders who were on deck before he came\u2014the wealthy men\nwho controlled the economic outfit; the official groups who held what\npolitical power was left to the Jews; and the lawyers, theologians,\npriests, and zealots who dominated the religious life of a very religious\npeople. These classes overlapped; together they constituted the oligarchy\nof his nation. Both sides soon realized that there were fundamental\nantagonisms between them. The conflict grew acute, until it headed up in\nthe great duel of the last days at Jerusalem. His experiences in this\nconflict with hostile leadership are recorded in the passages which we\nhave studied and others like them.\n\n\nII\n\n\nIn the fundamental reply to James and John he formulated his observations\nin a great political generalization: \u201cYe know that the rulers of the\nnations lord it over them and their great men hold down the rest by\nforce.\u201d In its earlier and cruder forms, the State is a contrivance of a\nvictorious group to hold down the conquered, and exploit them. If anyone\nhas not yet read political history as an account of systematic\nexploitation of nation by nation and class by class, he has some education\nstill coming to him.\n\nEven where political leadership has not been plainly predatory but rested\non real service, humanity has often had a heavy price to pay for it.\nSuccessful military leaders were able to perpetuate a royal dynasty and\nperhaps fasten a race of hereditary incapables on a nation, to be\nmaintained in royal splendor. The feudal nobility performed useful work in\nthe earlier, turbulent times, but it continued to take rent and tribute\nfor centuries after its useful functions had lapsed. Modern business men\nwho have organized public service corporations have often served the\nnation well, but they now own the highways and fundamental outfit of the\nnation, and if their descendants or assignees collect tribute, perhaps on\ninflated capitalization, for generations to come, it looks like rather\ncostly service. The obligations of power have a curious way of getting\nlost in the shuffle of time, but titles, rank, legal privileges, rent, and\ninterest are carefully groomed. If one man loses them, some other man\nnurses them, and the people always pay.\n\nThe Kingdom of God sets a fraternal and righteous social order against the\npredatory and unrighteous order which humanity has inherited from the\npast. The new order must have a new dynasty of leaders, for every social\norder has its own kind of aristocracy. Jesus does not propose to abolish\nleadership, but he proposes a new basis for greatness which is sharply\nopposed to the old: \u201cWhoever has ambition to be a great man among you, let\nhim be your servant; and whoever is ambitious to rank first among you, let\nhim be your bondservant. Just as the Son of Man did not come to have\nothers serve him, but to render service and to give his life as a ransom\nfor many.\u201d Ability and ambition are still to lead, but they are to be\nyoked to the service of all. Not he who kills and subjugates, but he who\nmakes life safe and happy, shall have the statue set up in his honor. Not\nthe great warrior and killer, but the great healer and the man who\nmultiplies the blades of grass and the ears of wheat and the size of\npotatoes shall be the great names treasured. The higher the honor craved,\nthe more strenuous must be the service; if a man wants first prize, he\nmust get down to voluntary slavery. The old way to leadership was to knock\nothers down and climb up on them; the new way is to get underneath and\nboost.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nJesus put himself under this law of leadership. We see from his words that\nthe cross was the outcome of a consistent principle adopted by him. The\nrules he laid down for his apostolate were meant to bar out selfish\nacquisition: \u201cFreely ye received, freely give. Get you no gold, nor\nsilver, nor brass in your purses; no wallet for your journey, neither two\ncoats, nor shoes, nor staff; for the laborer is worthy of his food.\u201d It is\na significant fact that again and again religious leaders who really cared\nfor the condition of the people, have tried to create a genuine leadership\nfor them along the same lines; Francis of Assisi gathered his \u201clittle\nbrothers\u201d; Peter Waldus his Bible teachers; Wycliffe his \u201cpoor preachers\u201d;\nJohn Wesley his local preachers and itinerants; William Booth his ensigns\nand captains with the big bass drum; and the entire foreign mission\npropaganda calls for leaders who will go to the people and offers them\nnothing but enough to live in health. Today practically the entire\nChristian ministry, one of the most important bodies of men, has come\nunder the law of leadership for service. It was once, at least in its\nupper-class sections, rich with unearned incomes, pervaded by graft, and\ndomineering in spirit; it is now a clean and plain-living profession;\nwhatever its shortcomings, graft and extortion are not of them.\n\nThe question is now, whether other professions will go through the same\nhistorical process of cleansing. The religious spirit has pioneering\nqualities; under its impulse men blaze the trail which broad social\nmovements or historical developments follow later. Greedy leadership first\nseemed intolerable in the Church; after a time it may become intolerable\nin politics and business. The trend of civilization is toward intelligent\nservice on plain pay. Educators, judges, scientists, doctors are on that\nbasis now. It has become dishonorable for them to use their positions for\na holdup. The great discoverers in the line of sero-therapy might have\ntaken toll in golden streams, but they did not. It would have been\ncontrary to the ethics of their profession. That means that their\nprofession is on a Christian basis. Where graft is taken out of politics,\nofficials become devoted public servants. The reproach has been made\nagainst a man of great ability that at the end of his life his name is not\nconnected with any great cause or measure for the welfare of the people.\nWhether the judgment was just or not, that point of view is the one to\ntake.\n\nCan business be brought under the law of service? Or is commerce\nconstitutionally incapable of it? There are many indications that a\nconscious spiritual change is coming over those men in business who have\nenough intellect and character to look beyond immediate needs. The type of\nbusiness leadership which took millions out of filthy factory towns, wore\nout women and took the youth out of children, cleared twelve per cent from\nslum tenements, kept men and women from marriage by underpayment, and kept\nthe cradle empty by high prices and fear of the future\u2014this type of\nleadership is antiquated. It belongs to a pre-Christian and pagan age. It\nis only a question whether business leaders will voluntarily turn their\nback on such misuse of power or have a change forced on them. Those who\nmark time on the old methods will become moral derelicts, and their wealth\nwill not forever screen their moral obtuseness.\n\nThe nation needs leaders who will persuade conservative farmers to use\nscientific methods; who will teach our wasteful people the value of\nself-restraint, and the beauty of cooperative buying and selling; who will\nteach our communities that it is a sin to rob our own children by leaving\nsoil, water, and forests poorer than we found them; who will give the\npeople good housing without taking the unearned increment; who will\norganize the dangerous industries for safety; who will place the relations\nof leaders and workers in industry on a basis of justice and goodwill so\nthat industrial peace can be attained. Is such an object satisfying to a\nyoung man of business capacity, or does he want to build a million dollar\nhouse and populate it with one child? It is confessed that civilization\nhas been succeeding on the technical side and failing on the ethical. The\nmore the machinery of life is concentrated in the hands of a limited group\nof business leaders, the more important does the social enlightenment and\nmoral objective of these leaders become to society. To which of the two\ntypes do we belong?\n\n\nIV\n\n\nWill a life of service satisfy the capable and call out their best powers\nfor the service of humanity? Men will play the game according to the rules\nof the game. If humanity changes the rules, its strong men will still let\nout their energies, because they can not help it, and they will like\nthemselves all the better for being on the side of their fellow-men. There\nis no pleasure in being isolated, eyed with resentment, and conscious of\nhardness. If ten per cent net means long hours, low wages, and repression,\nand if six per cent would mean good will and contentment, it might pay the\nleaders of industry to take less in dividends and take it out in the\nhigher satisfactions.\n\nFor men of great ability this is the chance for enduring fame. Who will\nremember the men that did nothing but amass wealth? Who of our presidents\nare remembered and loved? Those who suffered with and for the people.\n\nThe leadership of service validates its rightness by its intellectual\nresults. Predatory and parasitic classes become intellectually sterile and\nignorant of real life. A man who wants to serve men, must get close to\nthem. If we carry a load uphill, we have to choose our footing, and will\nperforce become intimately acquainted with the law of gravitation. Nothing\ndevelops the intellect like heading a just cause and fighting for it.\n\nHere, then, we have another social principle of Jesus. The ambition of the\nstrong must be yoked to the service of society. Power and honor must be\nearned by distinguished and costly service. Progress along this direction\nmarks the progress of the Kingdom of God. Extortionate and domineering\nleadership must be superseded where the Kingdom of God moves forward.\n\n\nV\n\n\nDoes the life of our colleges and universities square with this principle?\nCollege men and women crave honor from their fellows, or their\nfraternities crave it for them vicariously. How do the \u201cbig men\u201d in\ncollege win it? Do they win it by raising the standards of intellectual\nwork for all? By making fun clean and honorable through the power of a\nclean public opinion? By creating a college spirit which will put manhood\ninto every generation of Freshmen that plunges into it? Or do they win\nhonor by organizing parties, by intoxicating themselves and others with\nfrothy \u201csocial\u201d successes, by acting for the gallery to see and applaud,\nand by wasting the dynamics of youth on shooting rockets that look like\nstars and come down like sticks? Such men are essentially selfish; even\ntheir service is self-seeking and deserves no honor from others. The more\ntalented and attractive they are, the more damage do they do. They\nperpetuate their kind. If fraternities or honorary societies honor and\nreward that sort of leadership, they force individuals into futility, and\nreenforce the natural temptation to shallow work and display by the\npowerful pressure of socialized public opinion.\n\nWhat has just been said applies to the inner life of the college group\nduring its brief command over young men and women. But meanwhile the\noutside life is waiting for them. Society creates and finances the\ncolleges and universities from the social fund created by those who work.\nA college man who toys with his work and fights those who want to make him\nwork, ought to be demoted and his chance given to some workingman who has\nintellectual hunger and would use it. But even of the able and efficient\ncollege men society has a right to inquire whether it is training enemies\nand exploiters or friends and leaders. This question will be asked more\nand more insistently by democracy as it becomes intelligent. Christianity\nanticipates this inquiry by its appeal to the individual conscience. Every\ncollege man and woman should choose the principle on which he proposes to\nexercise leadership in case he wins it. Are we willing to gain wealth by\nimpoverishing others? Are we willing to get pleasure by degrading others?\nAre we willing to gain power and freedom for ourselves by making others\npowerless and unfree? Jesus distinguishes three kinds of men who are\ninterested in the sheep\u2014the robber, the hireling, and the shepherd. You\ncan tell the presence of the robber by the death of the sheep; the\nhireling by his cowardice; the true leader by his valor and love.\n\nA special word should be said to college women. In her book on \u201cWoman and\nLabor,\u201d Olive Schreiner has pointed out that as families rise to wealth,\nthe women slip into parasitism more readily than the men. They cease to do\nproductive work, accept the luxuries of life as their right, and fall in\nwith upper-class pretensions. The means of leadership\u2014time, wealth, social\nresources\u2014are at their command. How will they use them? The number of\nwomen with unearned incomes is increasing rapidly in America. Now, if much\nis given them, much will be required. Can they produce enough social\nvalues to justify what they consume? The least we can do is to give as\nmuch as we get. Anything less is immoral.\n\nWhat kind of influence do college girls exert on able young men who turn\ntoward them in love? Nothing will shrivel the idealistic conceptions of\nlife in a young man as thoroughly as love for a selfish woman. The world\nis full of eyeless Samsons, grinding the money-mills, and whipped to a\nquicker pace by smiling grafters\u2014who would not recognize this description\nof them if they saw it.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _The Need of Leadership_\n\n1. Does the need of leadership diminish with the spread of democracy? With\nthe growth of education?\n\n2. Do we need leadership more or less in America today than fifty years\nago?\n\nII. _Jesus on the Problems of Leadership_\n\n1. Give proof that Jesus consciously confronted the problem of social\nleadership.\n\n2. What elements did he condemn in the old leadership of his nation?\n\n3. What principle of leadership did he lay down for the new social order?\n\n4. What body of leaders did he create, and what standards of special honor\ndid he impose on them?\n\n5. What do we think of the historic effectiveness of the leadership he\ncreated? What is the true interpretation of Judas Iscariot?\n\n6. What evidences are there in Jesus\u2019 career that he was true to his\nideals of leadership?\n\nIII. _The Problem of Leadership in History_\n\n1. How have the great leaders in the field of religion attacked the\nproblem of leadership in the Church? What does the Protestant Reformation\nsignify from this point of view?\n\n2. How have the landed aristocrats of the past met the Christian test of\nleadership?\n\n3. Give examples from history and from modern life of men who exercised\npower in the way Christ condemned. Give examples of others who exercised\nit according to Christ\u2019s law.\n\nIV. _The Problem of Leadership in Modern Life_\n\n1. In what professions is ambition now securely tied up with service, so\nthat a man must serve well in order to rise?\n\n2. In what positions can a man still gain power and wealth by exploiting\nsociety?\n\n3. Is the consciousness that they are public servants spreading among\nbusiness men? If so, to what is this due?\n\n4. Is society paying too big a price for the leadership of the industrial\naristocracy today?\n\n5. When the interests of the stockholders are set over against the health\nof women and children, and the safety of employes, which consideration\ndetermines the wages paid?\n\n6. How have the social leaders of the past mortgaged the economic\nresources of nations to their own families? To what extent is this true of\nour country?\n\n7. How can society protect itself against exploitation under present\nconditions?\n\nV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. A corporation has averaged 24 per cent to its stockholders. It pays\ntwelve dollars a week to its ordinary workmen. Would you call this\npredatory leadership? Where do you draw the line?\n\n2. Does the salary of teachers in our country indicate that we give honor\naccording to service rendered?\n\n3. How does the increasing size of business undertakings and their\nimportance for public welfare emphasize the ethical importance of right\nleadership?\n\n\n\n\nChapter VIII. Private Property And The Common Good\n\n\n_Private Property Must Serve Social Welfare_\n\nA glance across history or a simple acquaintance with human life in any\ncommunity will show us that private property is at the same time a\nnecessary expression of personality and stimulator of character, and, on\nthe other hand, a chief outlet and fortification of selfishness. Every\nreformatory effort must aim to conserve and spread the blessings of\nproperty, and every step toward a better social order will be pugnaciously\nblocked by its selfish beneficiaries.\n\nWhat were Jesus\u2019 convictions about private property?\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Rival Interest\n\n\n    And he spake to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the\n    sower went forth to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell by the\n    way side, and the birds came and devoured them: and others fell\n    upon the rocky places, where they had not much earth: and\n    straightway they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth:\n    and when the sun was risen, they were scorched; and because they\n    had no root, they withered away. And others fell upon the thorns;\n    and the thorns grew up and choked them: and others fell upon the\n    good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty,\n    some thirty.... When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and\n    understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away\n    that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown\n    by the way side. And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this\n    is he that heareth the word, and straight-way with joy receiveth\n    it; yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and\n    when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word,\n    straightway he stumbleth. And he that was sown among the thorns,\n    this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and\n    the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh\n    unfruitful. And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he\n    that heareth the word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth\n    fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some\n    thirty.\u2014Matt. 13:3-8; 19-23.\n\n\nThis parable was intended to explain to the disciples why the Kingdom was\nnot coming with a rush, as they expected. The story embodies the practical\nexperiences of Jesus in his propaganda. He saw his work as a duplication\nof the sower\u2019s work on a higher level. The success of both depends on the\nreceptiveness of the soil. The sower encounters hard trodden ground, rocky\npatches, and spots where hardy thorns or thistles drain the soil and where\nhis work produces only empty ears and futile beginnings. So Jesus met the\nstolid conservative and also the emotional type. But the climax of his\ndifficulties was a mind preoccupied by property worries, or lured by the\nillusions of wealth. He early found, then, that devotion to property is\nlikely to be a rival to the higher interests and the common good.\n\nHow do modern social groups line up when measured by spiritual\nreceptiveness?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Accumulator\n\n\n    And one out of the multitude said unto him, Teacher, bid my\n    brother divide the inheritance with me. But he said unto him, Man,\n    who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them,\n    Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man\u2019s\n    life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he\n    possesseth. And he spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground\n    of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he reasoned\n    within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where\n    to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down\n    my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain\n    and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much\n    goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be\n    merry. But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy\n    soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared,\n    whose shall they be? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself,\n    and is not rich toward God.\u2014Luke 12:13-21.\n\n\nMost men today would have no fault to find with this man. He was only\ndoing what the modern world is unanimously trying to do. Having made a\npile, he proposed to make a bigger pile. Meanwhile he slapped his soul on\nthe back and smacked his lips in anticipation. To Jesus the fat farmer was\na tragic comedy. In the first place, an unseen hand was waiting to snuff\nout his candle. To plan life as if it consisted in an abundance of\nmaterial wealth is something of a miscalculation in a world where death is\npart of the scheme of things. In the second place, Jesus saw no higher\npurpose in the man\u2019s aim and outlook to redeem his acquisitiveness. The\nman was a sublimated chipmunk, gloating over bushels of pignuts. If wealth\nis saved to raise and educate children, or achieve some social good, it\ndeserves moral respect or admiration. But if the acquisitive instinct is\nwithout social feeling or vision, and centered on self, it gets no\nrespect, at least from Jesus.\n\nUnlimited acquisition used to be considered immoral and dishonorable. How\nand when did public opinion change on this?\n\n\n\nThird Day: Quit Grafting\n\n\n    And the multitudes asked him, saying, What then must we do? And he\n    answered and said unto them, He that hath two coats, let him\n    impart to him that hath none; and he that hath food, let him do\n    likewise. And there came also publicans to be baptized, and they\n    said unto him, Teacher, what must we do? And he said unto them,\n    Extort no more than that which is appointed you. And soldiers also\n    asked him, saying, And we, what must we do? And he said unto them,\n    Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse any one wrongfully;\n    and be content with your wages.\u2014Luke 3:10-14.\n\n\nThe social teachings of John the Baptist were so close to those of Jesus\nthat we can safely draw on them in this passage.\n\nJohn told the people that a new era was coming and they would have to get\na new mind and manner of life as an outfit for it. The people asked for\nspecifications. John\u2019s suggestions ran along two lines. He encouraged the\nplain working people to be neighborly and friendly, and share with a man\nwho was hard up. With powerful individuals, like hired soldiers and Roman\ntax-farmers, he insisted that they must quit using their physical force\nand legal power as a cinch to extort money. In other words, they must quit\ngrafting. In the Kingdom of God the \u201cbig, black book of graft\u201d will be\nclosed, and men will no longer eat their protesting fellow-men. The more\nwe realize that some form of graft is at the bottom of most easy incomes,\nthe more good sense will we see in this kind of evangelism.\n\nHave we ever been a victim of extortion? How did it feel? Did it sour the\nmilk of human kindness in us?\n\n\n\nFourth Day: God versus Mammon\n\n\n    Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and\n    rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay\n    up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust\n    doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:\n    for where thy treasure is there will thy heart be also. The lamp\n    of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy\n    whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy\n    whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that\n    is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness! No man can\n    serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the\n    other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye\n    cannot serve God and mammon.\u2014Matt. 6:19-24.\n\n\nAcquisition may operate on different planes. A man may accumulate material\nstuff, or he may acquire spiritual faculties, memories, and relations. In\na balanced life the two work side by side in peace, and each may aid the\nother. But the experience of all spiritual teachers shows that practically\nthe acquisition of property often becomes a passion which absorbs the man\nand leaves little energy for the higher pursuits. Most men who have used\nup their life to acquire wealth look back with homesickness to some\nidealistic aspiration of their youth as to a lost Edenland. Jesus felt the\nantagonism of private wealth and the Kingdom of God so keenly that he set\nGod and Mammon over against each other, and warned us that we must choose\nbetween them. Placed in this connection, the saying about the darkening of\nthe inner light seems to refer to the influence of money-getting on the\nhigher vision of the soul. This entire passage is fundamental and will\nexplain other sayings which follow.\n\nDo God and money come into flat collision in college life?\n\n\n\nFifth Day: The Divisive Influence of Riches\n\n\n    Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and\n    fine linen, faring sumptuously every day: and a certain beggar\n    named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to\n    be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man\u2019s table; yea,\n    even the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that\n    the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into\n    Abraham\u2019s bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried. And\n    in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth\n    Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said,\n    Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may\n    dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am\n    in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that\n    thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in\n    like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou\n    art in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you there is\n    a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you\n    may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us.\n    And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest\n    send him to my father\u2019s house; for I have five brethren; that he\n    may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of\n    torment. But Abraham saith, They have Moses and the prophets; let\n    them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one go to\n    them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If\n    they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be\n    persuaded, if one rise from the dead.\u2014Luke 16:19-31.\n\n\nWhy does Jesus send the rich man to hell as if it were a matter of course?\nNo crimes or vices are alleged. It must be that a life given over to\nsumptuous living and indifferent to the want and misery of a fellow-man at\nthe doorstep seemed to Jesus a deeply immoral and sinful life. Jesus\nexerted all his energies to bring men close together in love. But wealth\ndivides. It creates semi-human relations between social classes, so that a\nsmall dole seems to be a full discharge of obligations toward the poor,\nand manly independence and virtue may be resented as offensive. The sting\nof this parable is in the reference to the five brothers who were still\nliving as Dives had lived, and whom he was vainly trying to reach by\nwireless. See verse 14 in explanation.\n\nIs it fair to call the relations between the selfish rich and the\ndependent poor \u201csemi-human relations\u201d?\n\n\n\nSixth Day: Get a Plank for the Deluge\n\n\n    And he said also unto the disciples, There was a certain rich man,\n    who had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he was\n    wasting his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, What is\n    this that I hear of thee? render the account of thy stewardship;\n    for thou canst be no longer steward. And the steward said within\n    himself, What shall I do, seeing that my lord taketh away the\n    stewardship from me? I have not strength to dig; to beg I am\n    ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the\n    stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. And calling to\n    him each one of his lord\u2019s debtors, he said to the first, How much\n    owest thou unto my lord? And he said, A hundred measures of oil.\n    And he said unto him, Take thy bond, and sit down quickly and\n    write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And\n    he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He saith unto him, Take thy\n    bond, and write fourscore. And his lord commended the unrighteous\n    steward because he had done wisely: for the sons of this world are\n    for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light. And I\n    say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of\n    unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you\n    into the eternal tabernacles.\u2014Luke 16:1-9.\n\n\nThis is one of the wittiest stories in the Bible and must be read with\nsome sense of humor. The tenant farmers of a great estate paid their rent\nin shares of the produce. This elastic system offered the steward a chance\nto make something on the side. He was found out and discharged, but while\nhe was closing up his accounts he still had a short spell of authority.\nThings looked dark. He did not care to blister his white hands with a\nhoe-handle, nor his social pride by begging. So he grafted one last graft,\nbut on so large a scale that the tenants would be under lasting\nobligations to him. The scamp was a crook, but at least he was\nlong-headed. Jesus wished the children of light were as clever in taking a\nlong look ahead as the children of this world. In that case men would get\nready for the new age, in which mammon loses its buying power, by making\nfriends with it now, and their friends would take them in as guests after\nthe great reversal.\n\nHow do you like the humorous independence of Jesus?\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: Stranded on His Wealth\n\n\n    And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I\n    do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest\n    thou me good? none is good, save one, even God. Thou knowest the\n    commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal,\n    Do not bear false witness, Honor thy father and mother. And he\n    said, All these things have I observed from my youth up. And when\n    Jesus heard it, he said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell\n    all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt\n    have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. But when he heard\n    these things, he became exceeding sorrowful; for he was very rich.\n    And Jesus seeing him said, How hardly shall they that have riches\n    enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to\n    enter in through a needle\u2019s eye, than for a rich man to enter into\n    the kingdom of God.\u2014Luke 18:18-25.\n\n\nA fine young man, of clean and conscientious life, but with unsatisfied\naspirations in his soul. Jesus invites him to a more heroic type of\nexcellence, cutting loose from his wealth and devoting himself to the\napostolate of the Kingdom of God. It was a great chance for a great life.\nHe might have stood for God before kings and mobs, and ranked with Peter,\nJohn, and Paul as a household name. He did not rise to his chance. What\nheld him? Jesus felt it was his wealth. A poor man would have had less to\nleave, and might have left it cheerfully. So Jesus sums up the\npsychological situation in the saddened exclamation that it is exceedingly\nhard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom where men live in justice,\nfraternity, and idealism.\n\nHave you noticed that in recent years an increasing number of this man\u2019s\ngrandsons are trying to cut loose and find the real life, eternal life?\nCan you name any?\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nEvidently the dangers connected with property were much in the mind of\nJesus. He seems to have emphasized them more fully and frequently than the\nevils of licentiousness or drunkenness. The modern Church has reversed the\nrelative emphasis. Why?\n\nOf course we must not look for the methods or viewpoints of political\neconomy in his teachings. His concern was for the spiritual vitality and\nsoundness of the individual, and for the human relations existing among\nmen. He was interested in property only in so far as it corrupted the\nhigher nature or made fraternity difficult. But let no one underestimate\nthe importance of these considerations. These things are the real end of\nlife. All the rest is scaffolding. We should be farther along if the\neconomic and social sciences had kept these fundamental questions more\nsternly in sight.\n\n\nI\n\n\nPlainly Jesus felt that the acquisitive instinct, like the sex instinct,\neasily breaks bounds and becomes ravenous; there is even less natural\nlimit to it. It absorbs the energies of intellect and will. As with the\nrich fool, the horizon of life is filled with chances to make the pile\ngrow bigger. Life seems to consist of money, and the problems of money.\n\nPeople are valued according to that standard. Marriages are arranged for\nit. Politics is run for it. Wars are begun for it. Creative artistic and\nintellectual impulses are shouldered aside, fall asleep, or die of\ninanition. Property is intended to secure freedom of action and\nself-development; in fact, it often chains men and clips their wings. This\nis what Jesus calls \u201cthe deceitfulness of riches\u201d and \u201cthe darkening of\nthe inner eye.\u201d(2)\n\nIn addition to the blight of character, wealth exerts a desocializing and\ndivisive influence. It wedges apart groups that belong together. Dives and\nLazarus may live in the front and rear of the same block, but with no\nsense of solidarity. Dives would have been deeply moved, perhaps, if one\nof his own class had punctured a tire in the Philistian desert and gone\nfor two days without any food except crumbs. The separation of humanity\ninto classes on the lines of wealth is so universal and so orthodox that\nfew of us ever realize that it flouts all the principles of Christianity\nand humanity.\n\nIn the case of the young ruler Jesus encountered the fact that wealth bars\nmen out of the world of their ideals. The question was not whether the\nyoung man could get to heaven, but whether he could have a share in the\nreal life, in the kingdom of right relations. It is hard to acquire great\nwealth without doing injustice to others; it is hard to possess it and yet\ndeal with others on the basis of equal humanity; it is hard to give it\naway even without doing mischief.\n\nWe have seen that Jesus believed profoundly in the value and dignity of\nhuman life; that he sought to create solidarity; that he was chiefly\nconcerned for the saving of the lowly; and that he demanded an heroic life\nin the service of the Kingdom of God. But wealth, as he saw it, flouted\nthe value of life, dissolved the spiritual solidarity of whole classes,\nand kept the lowly low; the wealthy had lost the capacity for an heroic\nlife.\n\nThis is radical teaching. What shall we say to it? Jesus is backed by the\nOld Testament prophets and the most spiritual teaching of the Hebrew\npeople, which condemned injustice and extortionate money-making even more\nenergetically than did Jesus. Medieval Christianity sincerely assented to\nthe principle that private property is a danger to the soul and a\nneutralizer of love. Every monastic community tried to cut under sex\ndangers by celibacy, and property dangers by communism. This was an\nenormous misinterpretation of Christianity, but it shows that men took the\nteachings on the dangers of private property seriously. The modern\nChristian world does not. It has quietly set aside the ideas of Jesus on\nthis subject, lives its life without much influence from them, and\ncontents itself with emphasizing other aspects.\n\nHas the teaching of Jesus on private property been superseded by a better\nunderstanding of the social value of property? Or has his teaching been\nsuppressed and swamped by the universal covetousness of modern life? \u201cOur\nmoral pace-setters strike at bad personal habits, but act as if there was\nsomething sacred about money-getting; and, _seeing that the master\niniquities of our time are connected with money-making_, they do not get\ninto the fight at all. The child-drivers, monopoly-builders, and crooked\nfinanciers have no fear of men whose thought is run in the moulds of their\ngrandfathers. Go to the tainted-money colleges, and you will learn that\nDrink, not Graft, is the nation\u2019s bane\u201d (Edward A. Ross, \u201cSin and Society,\nan Analysis of Latter-day Iniquity,\u201d p. 97\u2014the italics are his).\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe machinery for making money which Jesus knew, was simple, crude, and\npuny compared with the complicated and pervasive system which the magnates\nof modern industry have built up. There was probably not a millionaire in\nall Palestine. What would he have said to our great cities?\n\nWe need a Christian ethics of property, more perhaps than anything else.\nThe wrongs connected with wealth are the most vulnerable point of our\ncivilization. Unless we can make that crooked place straight, all our\ncharities and religion are involved in hypocrisy.\n\nWe have to harmonize the two facts, that wealth is good and necessary, and\nthat wealth is a danger to its possessor and to society. On the one hand\nproperty is indispensable to personal freedom, to all higher\nindividuality, and to self-realization; the right to property is a\ncorollary of the right to life; without property men are at the mercy of\nnature and in bondage to those who have property. On the other hand\nproperty is used as a means of collecting tribute and private taxes, as a\nclub with which to extort unearned gain from laborers and consumers, and\nas the fundamental tool of oppression.\n\nWhere do we draw the line? Is it true that property created by productive\nlabor is a great moralizer, and that property acquired without productive\nlabor is the great demoralizer? Is it correct that property for use is on\nthe whole good, and property for power is a menace?\n\nWhat is the relation between property and self-development? At what point\ndoes property become excessive? At what point does food become excessive\nand poisonous? At what point does fertilizer begin to kill a plant? Would\nany real social values be lost if incomes averaged $2,000 and none\nexceeded $10,000?\n\nTo what extent does a moral purpose take the dangers out of acquisition?\n\nIs any life moral in which the natural capacities are not sincerely taxed\nto do productive work? If a man\u2019s wealth is destined to cut his\ndescendants off from productive labor, is it a blessing? What is the moral\ndifference between strenuous occupation and labor? How large a proportion\nof our time and energy can be devoted to play and leisure without\nsoftening our moral fiber?\n\nAt what points does private property come to be anti-social? If we could\neliminate the monopoly elements and the capacity to levy tribute, would\nthere be much danger in the remainder?\n\nDoes private property, in the enormous aggregations of today and in\ncontrol of the essential outfit of society, still correspond to the\nessential theoretical conception of private property, or have public\nproperties and public functions fallen under private control? \u201cMuch that\nwe are accustomed to hear called legitimate insistence upon the rights of\nproperty, the Old Testament would seem to call the robbery of God, and\ngrinding the faces of the poor\u201d (The Bishop of Oxford).\n\n\nIII\n\n\nThe religious spirit will always have to call the individual farther than\nthe law can compel him to go. After all unjust and tainted portions have\nbeen eliminated from our property, religion lays its hands on the rest and\nsays, \u201cYou are only a steward over this.\u201d In the parables of the talents,\nthe pounds, and the unjust steward, Jesus argues on the assumption that\nour resources are a trust, and not absolute property. We manage and\ncontrol them, but always under responsibility. We hold them from God, and\nhis will has eminent domain. But the will of God is identical with the\ngood of mankind. When we hold property in trust for God, we hold it for\nhumanity, of which we are part. We misuse the trust if by it we deprive\nothers of health, freedom, joy, hope, or efficiency, for instance, by\noverworking others and underworking our own children.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _The Love of Money_\n\n1. Define graft. What is wrong in it? Where do we see it? Where are we\nmyopic about it?\n\n2. Why did Jesus have so much to say about money and so little about\ndrink? Why does Paul call the love of money \u201cthe root of all evil\u201d?\n\nII. _Jesus\u2019 Fear of Riches_\n\n1. On what ground does Jesus fear the influence of riches and of their\naccumulation?\n\n2. Summarize Jesus\u2019 teachings regarding wealth.\n\n3. In what respects is his attitude different from the ordinary viewpoint\nof the modern world?\n\n4. Was Jesus opposed to the owning of farming tools or fishing smacks?\nWhere would he draw the line between honest earnings and dangerous wealth?\n\n5. Was his teaching on wealth ascetic? Was it socialistic?\n\n6. To what extent should we recognize his insight on this question as\nauthority for us?\n\nIII. _The Problem of Wealth in the Modern World_\n\nI. Are the \"master iniquities\" of our age located in sex life, politics,\nor business?\n\n2. Distinguish between \u201cproperty for use\u201d and \u201cproperty for power.\u201d\n\n3. What are the moral evils created by mass poverty? By aggregations of\nwealthy families?\n\n4. Why has the modern world set aside Jesus\u2019 teachings about wealth? To\nwhat extent have we substituted a better understanding of the social value\nof property? How far should we be satisfied with our present adjustment of\nthe property question?\n\n5. What methods of money making are condemned by the common sentiment of\nthe Church? Is there anything which ought to be included in this\ncondemnation? If so, what?\n\nIV. _The Christian Attitude Toward Property and Wealth Under Modern\nConditions_\n\n1. At what point does the amassing of private property become contrary to\nthe principles of Jesus?\n\n2. What legalized property rights are antagonistic to Jesus\u2019 principles?\n\n3. How can society accumulate wealth without the injustice and social\ndivisions which now accompany the amassing of private fortunes?\n\n4. If a man has an invested income, has he the right to live a life of\nleisure? When is it right to be a non-producer?\n\n5. How rich has a Christian a right to be? In a Christian society what is\nthe minimum limit of income?\n\n6. Would economic democracy eliminate or enforce the doctrine of\nstewardship?\n\n7. How can we pluck the sting of sin out of private property?\n\nV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. Are millionaires a symptom of social disease or a triumph of\ncivilization?\n\n2. Should social science reckon with the influence of wealth on personal\ncharacter?\n\n3. What moral conviction is expressed in the condemnation of usurious\ninterest and of rack-rent? Should excessive profit be included?\n\n4. How could industry be financed if there were no wealthy investors with\naccumulations?\n\n5. When is a college student a parasite?\n\n6. If college communities had less money would they breed better men and\nwomen?\n\n7. How have the successes of predatory finance affected the outlook and\nmorality of college students?\n\n\n\n\nChapter IX. The Social Test Of Religion\n\n\n_Religion Must be Socially Efficient_\n\nThe teaching of Jesus dealt with three recalcitrant forces, which easily\nescape from the control of social duty and become a clog to spiritual\nprogress: ambition for power and leadership, and the love of property,\nhave been considered. How about religion? Is it a help or a hindrance in\nthe progress of humanity? Opinions are very much divided today. No student\nof society can neglect religion as a social force. What did Jesus think of\nit?\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: Worship is not Enough\n\n\n    What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I\n    have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed\n    beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs,\n    or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath\n    required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more\n    vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and\n    sabbath, the calling of assemblies,\u2014I cannot away with iniquity\n    and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts\n    my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing\n    them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes\n    from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your\n    hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the\n    evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn\n    to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the\n    fatherless, plead for the widow.\u2014Isa. 1:11-17.\n\n    Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the\n    high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with\n    calves a year old? will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams,\n    or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born\n    for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?\n    He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah\n    require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to\n    walk humbly with thy God?\u2014Micah 6:6-8.\n\n\nThese two passages are classical expressions of a note which runs through\nall the prophetic teaching of the Old Testament. There was a fundamental\nantagonism between those who saw the service of God in the inherited\nritual and sacrificial action, and those who felt that the essential\nservice of God is righteousness of life. The prophets wanted a religion\nthat would change social conduct, and repudiated religious doings that had\nno ethical value. They held that worship alone is not enough. God wants\nlife and conduct.\n\nSuggest parallels from the history of the Christian or the non-Christian\nreligions.\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Test of Social Value\n\n\n    And it came to pass, that he was going on the sabbath day through\n    the grainfields; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck\n    the ears. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on\n    the sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto them,\n    Did ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was\n    hungry, he, and they that were with him? How he entered into the\n    house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the showbread,\n    which it is not lawful to eat save for the priests, and gave also\n    to them that were with him? And he said unto them, The sabbath was\n    made for man; and not man for the sabbath: so that the Son of man\n    is lord even of the sabbath.\n\n    And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there\n    who had his hand withered. And they watched him, whether he would\n    heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him. And he\n    saith unto the man that had his hand withered, Stand forth. And he\n    saith unto them, Is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good, or to\n    do harm? to save a life, or to kill? But they held their peace.\n    And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being\n    grieved at the hardening of their heart, he saith unto the man,\n    Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth; and his hand\n    was restored.\u2014Mark 2:23-3:5.\n\n\nThe Mosaic law intended the Sabbath to be a haven of rest for all who were\ndriven, the slave, the immigrant, even the cattle. It was a precious\ninstitution of social protection. But the strict religionists of Jesus\u2019\ntime had made a yoke of tyranny of it, so that hungry men could not rub\nthe kernels from ears of grain without being charged with threshing, and\nJesus could not heal a poor paralytic without getting black looks. A fine\ninstitution of social welfare and relief had been turned into an\nanti-social regulation. Jesus fell back on the fundamental maxim of the\nprophets, \u201cI desire kindness and not sacrifice,\u201d and laid down the\nprinciple that \u201cthe Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the\nSabbath.\u201d The religious institution of the Sabbath must have social value;\nthis is the essential test even in religion.\n\nIs the Sabbath more useful to society now than in Puritan times?\n\nFrom which do we suffer more today, from excessive strictness or excessive\nlooseness in Sabbath observance?\n\nHow is the social value of the rest-day frustrated for the working class?\n\n\n\nThird Day: Natural Duty above Artificial\n\n\n    And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy\n    disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their\n    bread with defiled hands? And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah\n    prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,\n\n    This people honoreth me with their lips,\n    But their heart is far from me.\n    But in vain do they worship me,\n    Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.\n\n    Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of\n    men. And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment\n    of God, that ye may keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor thy\n    father and thy mother; and, He that speaketh evil of father or\n    mother, let him die the death: but ye say, If a man shall say to\n    his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been\n    profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God; ye no\n    longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother; making\n    void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered:\n    and many such like things ye do.\u2014Mark 7:5-13.\n\n\nContemporary Jewish religion was full of taboos, defilements, and\npurifications. Read Mark 7:1-23. Jesus was so indifferent about the\nreligious ablutions that he was brought to book for it by the pious. He\nreplied that these regulations were not part of the divine law, but later\naccretions the product of theological casuistry, and that they tended to\nobscure the real divine duties. He cited a flagrant case. By eternal and\ndivine law a man owes love and support to his parents. But the scribes\nheld that if a man vowed to give money to the temple, this obligation,\nbeing toward God, superseded the obligation to his parents, which was\nmerely human. To Jesus this seemed a perversion of religion.\nEcclesiastical claims were made to stifle fundamental social duty. To\nJesus the latter had incomparably higher value. Religion had become a\nsocial danger through such teaching.\n\nGive proof from modern history that religious institutions may become\ninjurious to social morality and welfare.\n\n\n\nFourth Day: Religion Which Obscured Duty\n\n\n    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint\n    and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters\n    of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to\n    have done, and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides,\n    that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel!\n\n    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse\n    the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are\n    full from extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first\n    the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof\n    may become clean also.\u2014Matt. 23:23-26.\n\n    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass\n    sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye\n    make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.\u2014Matt. 23:15.\n\n\nThe great invective of Jesus against the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew\n23) deals wholly with the perversions of religion. In these verses he\nemphasizes the fact that the solemn importance attached to external\nminuti\u00e6 turned the attention of men from the really fundamental spiritual\nduties, such as justice, mercy, and good faith. As the blood was supposed\nto be the sacred element of life, it had to be drained off in butchering,\nand a drowned animal could not be eaten. Jesus wittily describes the\nPharisee filtering out drowned gnats from the drinking water, but bolting\nsome camel of a sin without blinking. The outside of the cup was kept\nscrupulously scoured, but the inside was filled with the products of\nrapacity and the material for luxurious excess. When religion had become\nof such a sort, even missionary activity became an actual damage, for the\nconverts were turned into fanatical sticklers on trifles. In all this we\ncan see him striking out for a kind of religion that would result in\nrighteous conduct and have social value.\n\n_Have we had any experience of religion which obscured duty to us? Have we\nhad any experience of religion which revealed duty to us?_\n\n\n\nFifth Day: Religious Wonders and Social Realities\n\n\n    And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and trying him asked him to\n    show them a sign from heaven. But he answered and said unto them,\n    When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the\n    heaven is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day:\n    for the heaven is red and lowering. Ye know how to discern the\n    face of the heaven; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times.\n    An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there\n    shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of Jonah. And he left\n    them, and departed.\u2014Matt. 16:1-4.\n\n\nThis demand for a miracle pursued Jesus all through his teaching activity.\nHe settled with it on principle in his desert temptation; he would not\nleap from the pinnacles of the temple, or do anything to turn his work\ninto a holy circus. But the demand followed him to his death: \u201cIf thou art\nthe Son of God, come down from the cross.\u201d A good, stunning miracle seemed\na short cut to faith, the most convincing way of furnishing proof of his\ndivine mission. Also, it would be mighty interesting. But he never catered\nto the demand. His power was only for the relief of suffering. He tried to\nkeep his acts of healing private. In this passage he advised his opponents\nto use their intellect in more useful directions than stargazing for signs\nfrom heaven. They were weather-wise. Let them read the signs of the times.\nStorms were brewing on the horizon. Forty years later Titus destroyed\nJerusalem and broke the back of the Jewish nation. The prophetic mind of\nJesus saw it coming (Luke 19:41-44).\n\nIf they had accepted his teaching of peace instead of getting intoxicated\nby the visions of revolutionary apocalypticism, the doom might have been\naverted. He was trying to bring their feet to the ground, turn their mind\nto realities, and make their religion socially efficient.\n\nWould the sight of a miracle have effected a moral change in a Pharisee?\n\nHow would religion be affected, if miraculous demonstrations could be\nfurnished at will?\n\n\n\nSixth Day: When Religion Separates Men\n\n\n    And as Jesus passed by from thence, he saw a man, called Matthew,\n    sitting at the place of toll: and he saith unto him, Follow me.\n    And he arose, and followed him.\n\n    And it came to pass, as he sat at meat in the house, behold, many\n    publicans and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his\n    disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his\n    disciples, Why eateth your Teacher with the publicans and sinners?\n    But when he heard it, he said, They that are whole have no need of\n    a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what this\n    meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice: for I came not to call\n    the righteous, but sinners.\u2014Matt. 9:9-13.\n\n\nThe Jewish community, religious at the core, had a fringe of people who\nhad failed to live up to the requirements of the Law. They came under the\ncondemnation of the respectable people and of their own conscience, and\ndrifted into the despised and vicious occupations. These were the\n\u201cpublicans and sinners,\u201d the \u201cpublicans and harlots,\u201d to whom the Gospels\nrefer. A socially efficient religion would have prompted the good people\nto establish loving and saving contact with these people. Actually\nreligion so accentuated the social divergence that the Pharisees were\nshocked when Jesus mingled in a friendly way with this class and even\nadded one of them to his traveling companions. The parables of the lost\ncoin, lost sheep, and prodigal son were spoken in reply to the slur, \u201cThis\nman receiveth sinners, and eateth with them\u201d (Luke 15). The elder brother\nof the prodigal pictures this loveless and censorious religion.\n\nJesus crossed the line of demarcation and established social contact and\nfriendliness, through which salvation could come to these religious\nderelicts. He quoted again the old saying of the prophets, \u201cI desire\nmercy, and not sacrifice.\u201d God was not as much concerned about correct\nreligious performances as the Pharisees thought, and a great deal more\nconcerned about mercy for the fallen, and the simple human qualities which\nbring the strong and the weak together.\n\nWhat experiences have we had of refusal to associate? Was the cleavage\nalong lines of race, wealth, education, morals, or religion?\n\n_Has religion with us been an impulse toward men, or away from men?_\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: Be Useful or Die\n\n\n    And he spake this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in\n    his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit thereon, and found none.\n    And he said unto the vinedresser, Behold, these three years I come\n    seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why\n    doth it also cumber the ground? And he answering saith unto him,\n    Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and\n    dung it: and if it bear fruit thenceforth, well; but if not, thou\n    shalt cut it down.\u2014Luke 13:6-9.\n\n\nJesus evidently had some interest in scientific agriculture. Both the\nowner and the vine-dresser in this parable were out for agricultural\nefficiency. The owner hated to see soil and space wasted; the vine-dresser\nwas reluctant to sacrifice a tree, and proposed better tillage and more\nfertilizer. Taking this parable in connection with what precedes, we see\nthat Jesus was concerned about the future of his nation and its religion.\nBoth would have to validate their right to exist; God could not have them\ncumber the ground. They must make good. This is the stern urge of the God\nwhom we know in history and evolution, with the voice of Christ pleading\nfor patience. But it is agreed between them that ultimately the law of\nfitness must rule. Religion can not bank on claims of antiquity alone.\nEvery generation must find it newly efficient to create the social virtues\nthen needed. Remember that this was spoken by a Jewish patriot and the\nsupreme exponent of the Hebrew religion.\n\nGive historical instances of the permanent downfall or decline of nations.\nTrace the connection between their fate and their religion.\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nJesus Christ was the founder of the highest religion; he was himself the\npurest religious spirit known to us. Why, then, was he in opposition to\nreligion? The clash between him and the representatives of organized\nreligion was not occasional or superficial. It ran through his whole\nactivity, was one of the dominant notes in his teaching, culminated in the\ngreat spiritual duel between him and the Jewish hierarchy in the last days\nat Jerusalem, and led directly to his crucifixion.\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe opposition of Jesus was not, of course, against religion itself, but\nagainst religion as he found it. It was not directed against any departure\nfrom the legitimate order of the priesthood; nor against an improper\nritual or wrong doctrine of sacrifices. In fact, it did not turn on any of\nthe issues which were of such importance to the Church in later times. He\ncriticized the most earnest religious men of his day because their\nreligion harmed men instead of helping them. It was unsocial, or\nanti-social.\n\nThe Old Testament prophets also were in opposition to the priestly system\nof their time because it used up the religious interest of the people in\nceremonial performances without ethical outcome. It diverted spiritual\nenergy, by substituting lower religious requirements for the one\nfundamental thing which God required\u2014righteousness in social and political\nlife. They insisted over and over that Jehovah wants righteousness and\nwants nothing else. Their aim was to make religion and ethics one and\ninseparable. They struck for the social efficiency of religion.\n\nAt the time of Jesus the Jewish sacrifices had lost much of their\nreligious importance. During the Exile they had lapsed. They were\nprofessional performances of one class. The numerous Jews scattered in\nother countries perhaps saw the temple once in a lifetime. Modern feeling\nin the first century was against bloody sacrifices. The recorded sayings\nof Jesus hardly mention them. On the other hand the daily life of the\npeople was pervaded by little prescribed religious actions. The Sabbath\nwith its ritual was punctiliously observed.(3) There were frequent days of\nfasting, religious ablutions and baths, long prayers to be recited several\ntimes daily, with prayer straps around the arm and forehead, and a\ntasseled cloth over the head. The exact performance of these things seemed\nan essential part of religion to the most earnest men.\n\nWe have seen how Jesus collided with these religious requirements and on\nwhat grounds. If men were deeply concerned about the taboo food that went\ninto their bodies, they would not be concerned about the evil thoughts\nthat arose in their souls. If they were taught to focus on petty duties,\nsuch as tithing, the great ethical principles and obligations moved to the\nouter field of vision and became blurred. The Sabbath, which had\noriginated in merciful purpose toward the poor, had been turned into\nanother burden. Religion, which ought to bring good men into saving\ncontact with the wayward by love, actually resulted in separating the two\nby a chasm of religious pride and censoriousness. A man-made and\nartificial religious performance, such as giving toward the support of the\ntemple, crowded aside fundamental obligations written deep in the\nconstitution of human society, such as filial reverence and family\nsolidarity.\n\nOther reformers have condemned religious practices because they were\ndepartures from the holy Book or from primitive custom. Jesus, too,\npointed out that some of these regulations were recent innovations. But\nthe real standard by which he judged current religious questions was not\nancient authority but the present good of men. The spiritual center on\nwhich he took his stand and from which he judged all things, was the\nKingdom of God, the perfect social order. Even the ordinances of religion\nmust justify themselves by making an effective contribution to the Kingdom\nof God. The Sabbath was made for man, and its observance must meet the\ntest of service to man\u2019s welfare. It must function wholesomely. The candle\nmust give light, or what is the use of it? The salt must be salty and\npreserve from decay, or it will be thrown out and trodden under foot. If\nthe fig-tree bears no fruit, why is it allowed to use up space and crowd\nbetter plants off the soil? This, then, is Christ\u2019s test in matters of\ninstitutional religion. The Church and all its doings must serve the\nKingdom of God.\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe social efficiency of religion is a permanent social problem. What is\nthe annual expense of maintaining the churches in the United States? How\nmuch capital is invested in the church buildings? (See U. S. Census\nBulletin No. 103, of 1906.) How much care and interest and loving\nfree-will labor does an average village community bestow on religion as\ncompared with other objects? All men feel instinctively that religion\nexerts a profound and subtle influence on the springs of conduct. Even\nthose who denounce it, acknowledge at least its power for harm. Most of us\nknow it as a power for good. But all history shows that this great\nspiritual force easily deteriorates. _Corruptio optimi pessima._\n\nReligion may develop an elaborate social apparatus of its own, wheels\nwithin wheels, and instead of being a dynamic of righteousness in the\nnatural social relations of men, its energies may be consumed in driving\nits own machinery. Instead of being the power-house supplying the Kingdom\nof God among men with power and light, the Church may exist for its own\nsake. It then may become an expensive consumer of social wealth, a\nconservative clog, and a real hindrance of social progress.\n\nLive religion gives proof of its value by the sense of freedom, peace, and\nelation which it creates. We feel we are right with the holy Power which\nis behind, and beneath, and above all things. It gives a satisfying\ninterpretation of life and of our own place in it. It moves our aims\nhigher up, draws our fellow-men closer, and invigorates our will.\n\nBut our growth sets a problem for our religion. The religion of childhood\nwill not satisfy adolescent youth, and the religion of youth ought not to\nsatisfy a mature man or woman. Our soul must build statelier mansions for\nitself. Religion must continue to answer all our present needs and inspire\nall our present functions. A person who has failed to adjust his religion\nto his growing powers and his intellectual horizon, has failed in one of\nthe most important functions of growth, just as if his cranium failed to\nexpand and to give room to his brain. Being microcephalous is a\nmisfortune, and nothing to boast of.\n\nPrecisely the same problem arises when society passes through eras of\ngrowth. Religion must keep pace. The Church must pass the burning torch of\nreligious experience from age to age, transmitting the faith of the\nfathers to the children, and not allowing any spiritual values to perish.\nBut it must allow and aid religion to adjust itself. Its inspiring\nteaching must meet the new social problems so effectively that no evil can\nlast long or grow beyond remedy. In every new age religion must stand the\ntest of social efficiency. Is it passing that test in Western\ncivilization?\n\nReligion is a bond of social coherence. It creates loyalty. But it may\nteach loyalty to antiquated observances or a dwarfed system of truth. Have\nyou ever seen believers rallying around a lost cause in religion? Yet\nthese relics were once a live issue, and full of thrilling religious\nvitality.\n\nSociety changes. Will religion change with it? If society passes from\nagriculture and rural settlements to industry and urban conditions, can\nthe customary practices of religion remain unchanged? Give some instances\nwhere prescientific conceptions of the universe, embodied in religion,\nhave blocked the spread of scientific knowledge among the people. The\ncaste distinctions of Hinduism were the product of a combination between\nreligion and the social organization of the people; can they last when\nindustrialism and democracy are pervading India? The clerical attitude of\nauthority was natural when the Catholic clergy were the only educated\nclass in the community; is it justified today? Protestantism won the\nallegiance of industrial communities when the young business class was\nstruggling to emancipate itself from the feudal system. It developed an\nindividualistic philosophy of ethics. Today society tends toward\nsolidaristic organization. How will that affect religion and its scheme of\nduty? Thus religion, by its very virtues of loyalty and reverence, may\nfall behind and lose its full social efficiency. It must be geared to the\nbig live issues of today if it is to manifest its full saving energies.\n\nHow does this problem of the efficiency of religion bear on the foreign\nmissionary movement? How will backward or stationary civilizations be\naffected by the introduction of a modern and enthusiastic religion?\n\nWe may feel the defects of our church life at home, but there is no doubt\nthat the young men and women who go out from our colleges under religious\nimpulses, are felt as a virile and modernizing force when they settle to\ntheir work in Turkey or Persia. Christian educational institutions and\nmedical missions have raised the intellectual and humane standards of\nyoung China. Buddhism in Japan has felt the challenge of competition and\nis readjusting its ethics and philosophy to connect with modern social\nideals. The historical effects of our religious colonization will not\nmature for several generations, but they are bound to be very great. The\nnations and races are drawing together. They need a monotheistic religion\nas a spiritual basis for their sense of human unity. This is a big,\nmodern, social task. It makes its claim on men and women who have youth,\neducation, and spiritual power. Is the religious life of our colleges and\nuniversities efficient enough to meet the need?\n\nHere are the enormous tasks of international relations, which the Great\nWar has forced us to realize\u2014the prevention of armed conflicts, the\nelimination of the irritant causes of war, the protection of the small\nnations which possess what the big nations covet, the freedom of the seas\nas the common highway of God, fair and free interchange in commerce\nwithout any effort to set up monopoly rights and the privilege of\nextortionate gain, the creation of an institutional basis for a great\nfamily of nations in days to come. These are some of the tasks which the\nmen and women who are now young must take on their mind and conscience for\nlife, and leave to their children to finish. What contributions, in your\nopinion, could the spirit of the Christian religion make to such a\nprogram, if it were realized intelligently and pressed home through the\nagencies of the Christian Church? In what ways has American religion shown\nits efficiency since the war broke out?\n\nChristianity has been a great power in our country to cleanse and\nfraternalize the social life of simple communities. Can it meet the\ncomplex needs of modern industrialism in the same way? It can not\ntruthfully be claimed that it has done so in any industrial country. Its\nimmense spiritual forces might be the decisive element, but they have been\neffectively organized against a few only of the great modern evils. On the\nfundamental ethical questions of capitalism the Church has not yet made up\nits own mind\u2014not to speak of enforcing the mind of Christ. Nor have the\nspecialists in the universities and colleges supplied the leaders of the\nChurch with clear information and guidance on these questions. We can not\nmake much permanent progress toward a just social order as long as the\nmasses of the working people in the industrial nations continue in\neconomic poverty and political helplessness, and as long as a minority\ncontrols the land, the tools, and the political power. We shall linger on\nthe borders of the Inferno until a new accession of moral insight and\nspiritual power comes to the nations. How will it come?\n\n\nIII\n\n\nWhat could the churches in an average village community accomplish if they\nintelligently directed the power of religion to foster the sense of\nfraternal unity and to promote the institutions which make for unity? How\ncould they draw the new, the strange, and the irregular families into the\ncircle of neighborly feeling? In what way could they help to assimilate\nimmigrants and to prevent the formation of several communities in the same\nsection, overlapping, alien, and perhaps hostile? How would it affect the\nrecreational situation if the churches took a constructive rather than a\nprohibitive attitude toward amusements, and if they promoted the\nsociability of the community rather than that of church groups?\n\nWith the rise of land prices and the control of transportation and\nmarkets, the rural population is moving toward a social crisis like that\nwhich transformed the urban population in the industrial revolution.\nAgriculture will become capitalistic, and the weaker families will drop to\nthe position of tenants and agricultural laborers. Cooperation is their\nway of salvation. Its effectiveness has been amply demonstrated in older\ncountries. It requires a strong sense of solidarity, loyalty, and good\nfaith to succeed. It has made so little headway in America because our\nnational character has not been developed in these directions. What could\nthe churches do to save the weaker families from social submergence by\nbacking cooperation and developing the moral qualities needed for it?\n\nThe strong religious life of our people might be more effective if the\nchurches were less divided. Their economic and human resources are partly\nwasted by useless competition. Our denominational divisions are nearly all\nan historical heritage, imported from Europe, and coming down from a\ncontroversial age. Their issues all meant something vital and socially\nimportant in the midst of the social order of that day; but in many cases\nthe real significance has quietly crumbled away, and they are not really\nthe same issues that deeply engaged our forefathers. We are all \u201ctithing\nmint, anise, and cummin,\u201d and forgetting the weighty matters, such as\nsocial justice and Christian fraternity. Everybody is ready to acknowledge\nthis about every denomination except his own. We need a revaluation of our\nreligious issues from the point of view of the Kingdom of God. That would\nbring us into harmony with the judgment of Jesus. Nothing else will.\n\n\nIV\n\n\nThe social efficiency of religion\u2014what call is there in that to the\ncollege men and women of this generation? Shall they cease to worship and\npray, seek the salvation of society in ethics and sociology, and abandon\nreligion to stagnation? Or shall they seek a new experience of religion in\nfull sight of the modern world, and work by faith toward that reign of God\nin which his will shall be done?\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _When the Salt Loses its Savor_\n\n1. What is the individual to do when religion becomes a hindrance to\nreligion?\n\n2. What types of revolt against inherited religion have you met in\ncollege?\n\nII. _Prophetic Religion Against Traditional Religion_\n\n1. What did the prophets criticize in the religion of their day?\n\n2. What was Jesus\u2019 test of religion?\n\n3. Give instances in which he found religion to be a hindrance to the\nhighest welfare. How did religion obscure duty?\n\n4. What was the essential cause of the clash between Jesus and the\nreligious leaders of his day?\n\nIII. _The Historic Reformation of Religion_\n\n1. In studying history, what sins or failures of the Church have impressed\nyou most?\n\n2. What did the Protestant Reformation contribute to make religion\nefficient?\n\n3. Has the Church been a rival or a feeder of the Kingdom of God?\n\n4. Give historical examples of the failure of religion to meet the changed\nrequirements of a new epoch.\n\n5. What contributions has the Church made to social progress?\n\nIV. _Religion Today_\n\n1. What have Christian missions done to change the social conditions in\nnon-Christian countries?\n\n2. How do you rate the social service value of a first-class minister in a\ncommunity? On what does his value depend?\n\n3. Of what social value to a community is a costly and beautiful church\nbuilding?\n\n4. What investment in capital and annual expenditure does the maintenance\nof the churches in your community entail? Does the social return to the\ncommunity justify the investment?\n\n5. Are the issues which divided the Protestant denominations in the\nsixteenth and seventeenth centuries still vital enough to justify the\ncontinuance of the divisions? Summarize the evils of the divisions and\ntheir counter-balancing good.\n\n6. Is the ordinary criticism of the churches fair? Are ministers overpaid\nor underpaid? Do the churches graft? How do the churches compare in social\nefficiency with other similar social institutions?\n\nV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. Why did the reformation of the Church historically precede the reform\nof politics and industry?\n\n2. Do the unsolved social problems of Christian nations prove the social\ninefficiency of religion? Could religion alone change the maladjustment of\nsociety?\n\n3. Why has religion been more effective in the field of private life than\nof public life?\n\n4. If you had full control of the churches in a given country or village\ncommunity, on what aims would you concentrate their forces?\n\n\n\n\n\nPART IV. CONQUEST BY CONFLICT\n\n\n\n\nChapter X. The Conflict With Evil\n\n\n_The Kingdom of God Will Have to Fight for Its Advance_\n\nThe great objective is the Kingdom of God. In realizing the Reign of God\non earth three recalcitrant forces have to be brought into obedience to\nGod\u2019s law: the desire for power, the love of property, and unsocial\nreligion. We have studied Christ\u2019s thought concerning these in the\nforegoing chapters. The advance of the Kingdom of God is not simply a\nprocess of social education, but a conflict with hostile forces which\nresist, neutralize, and defy whatever works toward the true social order.\nThe strategy of the Kingdom of God, therefore, involves a study of the\nsocial problem of evil.\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Consciousness of Sin in the Lord\u2019s Prayer\n\n\n    And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.\n    And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil\n    one.\u2014Matt. 6:12, 13.\n\n\nThe Lord\u2019s Prayer expresses the very mind and spirit of the Master. It\nbegins with the Kingdom of God; it ends with the problem of sin. As we\nstand before God, we realize that we have loaded up our life with debts we\ncan never pay. We have wasted our time, and the powers of body and soul.\nWe have left black marks of contagion on some whose path we have crossed.\nWe have hurt even those who loved us by our ill-temper, thoughtlessness,\nand selfishness.\n\nWe can only ask God to forgive and give us another chance: \u201cForgive us our\ndebts.\u201d Looking forward we see the possibility of fatal temptations. We\nknow how fragile our power of resistance is. \u201cLead us not into temptation,\nbut deliver us from evil.\u201d Thus the consciousness of sin is written across\nthis greatest of all prayers.\n\nIs a sense of unworthiness an indication of moral strength or of weakness?\n\n_Where do we draw the line between a normal and abnormal sense of sin?_\n\n\n\nSecond Day: Evil Embodied in Character\n\n\n    Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree\n    corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its\n    fruit. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good\n    things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.\n    The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things:\n    and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil\n    things. And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall\n    speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For\n    by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt\n    be condemned.\u2014Matt. 12:33-37.\n\n\nCharacter is formed by action, but after it is formed, it determines\naction. What a man says and does, he becomes; and what he has become, he\nsays and does. An honest and clean-minded man instinctively does what is\nkind and honorable. But when a man for years has gone for profit and\nselfish power, you can trust him as a general thing to do what is\nunderhanded and mean. Since selfish ability elbows its way to controlling\npositions in business, politics, and society, the character reactions of\nsuch men are a force with which the Kingdom of God must reckon. They are\nthe personal equipment of the kingdom of evil, and the more respectable,\nwell-dressed, and clever they are, the worse it is.\n\nWhat man or woman of our acquaintance would we single out as the clearest\ncase of an evil character?\n\nWhy do we so judge him?\n\n\n\nThird Day: The Social Pressure of Evil\n\n\n    And he said unto his disciples, It is impossible but that\n    occasions of stumbling should come; but woe unto him, through whom\n    they come! It were well for him if a millstone were hanged about\n    his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he\n    should cause one of these little ones to stumble.\u2014Luke 17:1, 2.\n\n\nA sex story lodging in a young mind, an invitation to companionship and a\ndrink, a sneer at religion which makes faith look silly\u2014such things trip\nus up. They are stumbling-blocks, like wires stretched across a path in\nthe dark. Just because we are social and easily influenced by friendship,\nadmiration, or persuasion, one man\u2019s suggestion or example draws the other\nman on. Jesus knew that social solicitation and pressure toward sin was\ninevitable. It is the price we pay for our social nature. But, all the\nsame, it is a terrible thing to contaminate a soul or steer a life toward\nits ruin. This saying about the millstone is one of the sternest words\never uttered.\n\n\n    \u201cThree men went out one summer night,\n    No care they had or aim,\n    And dined and drank. \u201cEre we go home\n    We\u2019ll have,\u201d they said, \u201ca game.\u201d\n\n    Three girls began that summer night\n    A life of endless shame,\n    And went through drink, disease, and death,\n    As swift as racing flame.\n    Lawless and homeless, foul they died;\n    Rich, loved, and praised the men;\n    But when they all shall meet with God,\n    And justice speaks\u2014what then?\u201d\n\n\nLet us enumerate to our own minds cases where others drew us into wrong,\nand cases where we were a cause of evil for others. About which do we feel\nsorest now? Why?\n\n\n\nFourth Day: Moral Laziness\n\n\n    No man having drunk old wine desireth new; for he saith, The old\n    is good.\u2014Luke 5:39.\n\n\nThis is a chance remark, but a keen observation. In wine-raising countries\nan expert tongue and nice discrimination between the fifty-seven varieties\nis one of the most coveted talents. A man who would prefer some recent\nstuff to the celebrated vintage of 18\u2014, would commit intellectual\n_hari-kari_. It is said that in some of the celebrated vaults of France\nthey breed spiders to cover the bottles with webs and dust to convey the\ndelicious suggestion of antiquity. Jesus uses the preference for old\nvintage to characterize the conservative instinct in human nature. This is\none of the stickiest impediments to progress, one of the most respectable\nforms of evil-mindedness. \u201cThe hereditary tiger is in us all, also the\nhereditary oyster and clam. Indifference is the largest factor, though not\nthe ugliest form, in the production of evil\u201d (President Hyde). Men are\nmorally lazy; they have to be pushed into what is good for them, and the\n\u201cpushee\u201d is almost sure to resent the pushing. The idea that men ardently\ndesire what is rational and noble is pernicious fiction. They want to be\nlet alone. This is part of original sin.\n\nWas the above written in haste, or will it stand?\n\n\n\nFifth Day: Satanic Frustration of Good\n\n\n    Another parable set he before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven\n    is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field: but while\n    men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat,\n    and went away. But when the blade sprang up and brought forth\n    fruit, then appeared the tares also. And the servants of the\n    householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good\n    seed in thy field? whence then hath it tares? And he said unto\n    them, An enemy hath done this. And the servants say unto him, Wilt\n    thou then that we go and gather them up? But he saith, Nay; lest\n    haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat with\n    them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of\n    the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares,\n    and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into\n    my barn.\u2014Matt. 13:24-30.\n\n\nHere we encounter the devil. There is more in sin than our own frailty and\nstupidity, and the bad influence of other individuals. There is a\npermanent force of organized evil which vitiates every higher movement and\nsows tares among the grain over night. You work hard on some law to reform\nthe ballot or the primary in order to protect the freedom and rights of\nthe people, and after three years your device has become a favorite tool\nof the interests. You found a benevolent institution, and after you are\ndead it becomes a nest of graft. Even the Church of Jesus was for\ncenturies so corrupt that all good men felt its reform in head and members\nto be the greatest desideratum in Christendom. Evil is more durable and\nversatile than youth and optimism imagine. The belief in a satanic power\nof evil expresses the conviction of the permanent power of evil. In early\nChristianity the belief in the devil was closely connected with the\nChristian opposition to the idolatrous and wicked social order of\nheathenism. In the Apocalypse the dragon who stands for Satan, and the\nbeasts who stand for the despotic Roman Empire, are in close alliance.\n\nWhat are the satanic social forces today?\n\nThe parable of the tares grew out of a personal experience. _Has our\nobservation ever furnished anything similar?_\n\n\n\nSixth Day: The Irrepressible Conflict\n\n\n    Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to\n    send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance\n    against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the\n    daughter in law against her mother in law: and a man\u2019s foes shall\n    be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more\n    than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter\n    more than me is not worthy of me. And he that doth not take his\n    cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth\n    his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake\n    shall find it.\u2014Matt. 10:34-39.\n\n\nInto a world controlled by sin was launched the life of Christ. The more\ncompletely he embodied the divine character and will, the more certain and\nintense would be the conflict between him and the powers dominating the\nold order. He accepted this fight, not only for himself but for his\nfollowers. It would follow them up into the intimacies of their homes. Any\nfaith that takes the Kingdom of God seriously, has its fight cut out for\nit. Unless we accept our share of it, we are playing with our\ndiscipleship. But when the fight is for the Kingdom of God, those who\ndodge, lose; and those who lose, win.\n\nWhich involves more conflict, a life set on the Kingdom of God on earth,\nor a faith set on the life to come?\n\n_Does the idea of a fighting faith attract us?_\n\n_Would this serve as a __\u201c__substitute for war__\u201d__?_\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: Militant Gentleness\n\n\n    But I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that\n    persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father who is in\n    heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good,\n    and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.\u2014Matt. 5:44, 45.\n\n    Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honorable\n    in the sight of all men. But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if\n    he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap\n    coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome\n    evil with good.\u2014Rom. 12:17, 20, 21.\n\n    Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom\n    were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should\n    not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from\n    hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus\n    answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been\n    born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear\n    witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my\n    voice.\u2014John 18:36, 37.\n\n\nWhen we call out the militant spirit in religion, we summon a dangerous\npower. It has bred grimness and cruelty. Crusaders and inquisitors did\ntheir work in the name of Jesus, but not in his spirit. We must saturate\nourselves with the spirit of our Master if our fighting is to further his\nKingdom. Hate breeds hate; force challenges force. Only love disarms; only\nforgiveness kills an enemy and leaves a friend. Jesus blended gentleness\nand virility, forgiving love and uncompromising boldness. He offered it as\na mark of his Kingdom that his followers used no force to defend him.\nWherever they have done so, the Kingdom of heaven has dropped to the level\nof the brutal empires. His attack is by the truth; whoever is won by that,\nis conquered for good. Force merely changes the form of evil. When we\n\u201covercome evil with good,\u201d we eliminate it.\n\nWhat did Paul mean by saying that acts of kindness to an enemy heap coals\nof fire on his head?\n\nHow about moral crusades that aim to put joint-keepers and pimps in\nprison?\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nAll great religious teachers have had a deep sense of the power of evil in\nhuman life. Jesus apparently was not interested in the philosophical\nquestion of the origin of evil, but accepted the fact of evil in a\npragmatic way, and saw his own life as a conflict with sin and wrong.\n\nSome facts, as we have seen, were clearly written in his consciousness:\nthe frailty of our will; the consolidation of evil in men of bad character\nand the automatic output of lies and distortions coming from such; the\npower of social pressure by which the weak are made to trip and fall; and\nthe pervasive satanic power of evil which purposely neutralizes the\nefforts leading toward the Reign of God.\n\nThe fact that Jesus realized evil in individuals and society, that he\nreckoned with it practically, and that he set himself against it with\nsingleness of purpose, constitutes another of his social principles. Any\nview of life which blurs the fact of evil would have seemed to him an\nillusion. He would have foretold failure for any policy based on it. His\ngreat social problem was redemption from evil. Every step of approach\ntoward the Kingdom of God must be won by conflict.\n\nModern science explains evil along totally different lines, but as to the\nmain facts it agrees with the spiritual insight of Jesus. Psychology\nrecognizes that the higher desires are usually sluggish and faint, while\nthe animal appetites are strong and clamorous. Our will tires easily and\nreadily yields to social pressure. In many individuals the raw material of\ncharacter is terribly flawed by inheritance. So the young, with a maximum\nof desire and a minimum of self-restraint, slip into folly, and the aging\nbackslide into shame. Human nature needs a strong reenforcement to rouse\nit from its inherited lethargy and put it on the toilsome upward track. It\nneeds redemption, emancipation from slavery, a breaking of bonds.\n\n\nI\n\n\nEvangelism is the attack of redemptive energy in the sphere of personal\nlife. It comes to a man shamed by the sense of guilt and baffled by moral\nfailure, and rouses him to a consciousness of his high worth and eternal\ndestiny. It transmits the faith of the Christian Church in a loving and\ngracious God who is willing to forgive and powerful to save. It teaches a\nman to pray, curing his soul by affirming over and over a triumphant\nfaith, and throwing it open to mysterious spiritual powers which bring\njoy, peace, and strength beyond himself. It sets before him a code of\nmoral duty to quicken and guide his conscience. It puts him inside of a\ngroup of like-minded people who exercise social restraint and urge him on.\n\nWhen all this is wisely combined, it constitutes a spiritual reenforcement\nof incomparable energy. It acts like an emancipation. It gives a sense of\nfreedom and newness. The untrained observer sees it mainly in those cases\nwhere the turn has come in some dramatic form and where the contrast\nbetween the old and new life is most demonstrable. But the saving force is\nat work even when it seeps in through home influences so quietly that the\nbeneficiary of it does not realize what a great thing has been done for\nhim.\n\nThe saving force has to attack the powers in possession. Only those who\nhave helped in wresting men free from sin can tell what a stiff fight it\noften is. Here is an intellectual professional man who goes off for a\nsecret spree about once in sixty days; a respectable woman who has come\nunder the opium habit; a boy who is both a cigarette fiend and sexually\nweak; a man who domineers and cows his wife and family; a woman who has\nreduced her husband to slavery to supply her expensive tastes; a girl who\nshirks all work and throws the burden of her selfish life on a hard-worked\nmother; a college man whose parents are straining all their resources and\nusing up their security for old age to keep him at college, and who\ngambles\u2014complete the catalogue for yourself. To make these individuals\nover into true citizens of the Kingdom of God and loyal fellow-workers of\ntheir fellow-men means constructive conflict of a high order. It has been\ndone.(4)\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe problem of evil becomes far more complicated when evil is socialized.\nThe simplest and most familiar form of that is the boys\u2019 gang. Here is a\ngroup of young humans who get their fun and adventure by pulling the\nwhiskers of the law. They idealize vice and crime. Leadership in their\ngroup is won by proficiency in profanity, gambling, obscenity, and\nslugging. The gang assimilates its members; there is regimentation of\nevil. It acts as a channel of tradition; the boy of fifteen teaches the\nboy of twelve what he has learned from the boy of eighteen.\n\nHow is the problem of evil affected when the powers of human society,\nwhich usually restrain the individual from vice and rebellion, are used to\nurge him into it? Should the strategy of the Kingdom of God be adjusted to\nthat situation? It is not enough to win individuals away from the gangs.\nCan the gang spirit itself be christianized and used to restrain and\nstimulate the young for good? Has this been done, and where, and how? Is\nChristian institutional work sufficient to cope with the problem? What\nreadjustments in the recreational and educational outfit of our American\ncommunities are needed to give a wholesome outlet to the spirit of play\nand adventure, and to train the young for their life work? Would such an\noutfit do the work without personal leadership inspired by religion?\n\nChristian evangelism in the past has not had an adequate understanding of\nthe power of the group. In what connections has the Church shown a true\nvaluation of the social factor in sin and redemption? At what points has\nits strategy been ineffective in dealing with socialized evil? What\ncontributions can social science make to the efficiency of evangelism?\nWould a correct scientific analysis of the constructive and disintegrating\nforces in society be enough to do saving work?\n\n\nIII\n\n\nThe bad gangs of the young are usually held together by a misdirected love\nof play and adventure. The dangerous combinations of adults are\nconsolidated by \u201cthe cohesive power of plunder.\u201d That makes them a far\nmore difficult proposition.\n\nAny local attack on saloons and vice resorts furnishes a laboratory\ndemonstration of socialized evil. The object of both kinds of institutions\nis to make big profit by catering to desires which induce men to spend\nfreely. Music and sociability are used as a bait. The people who profit by\nthis trade are held together by the fear of a common danger. Since the\ncommunity uses political means of curbing or suppressing the vice\nbusiness, the vice group goes into politics to prevent it. It seeks to\ncontrol the police, the courts, the political machines by sharing part of\nits profits. Lawyers, officials, newspaper proprietors, and real estate\nmen are linked up and summoned like a feudal levy in case of danger.\nDrugstores, doctors, chauffeurs, messenger boys, and all kinds of people\nare used to bring in trade and make it secure. The exploded fictions of\nalcoholism are kept circulating. Like a tape-worm in the intestines, these\narticulated and many-jointed parasitic organizations of vice make our\ncommunities sick, dirty, and decadent.\n\nWe have learned to read the sordid trail of the drink and vice traffic in\nAmerican communities. There is another kind of organized evil, even more\nancient, pervasive, and deadly, which few understand, though it has left a\ntrail sufficiently terrible.\n\nWherever we look in the history of the older nations, we see an alignment\nof two fundamental classes. The one is born to toil, stunted by toil, and\ngets its class characteristics by toil. The other is characterized by the\npleasures and arts of leisure, is physically and mentally developed by\nleisure, and proud and jealous of its leisure. This class is always\nclass-conscious; its groups, however antagonistic, always stand together\nagainst the class of toil. Its combination of leisure and wealth is\nconditioned on the power of taking tribute from the labor of many. In\norder to do this with safety, it must control political power, the\nmilitary outfit, the power of making, interpreting and executing the laws,\nand the forces forming public opinion.\n\nBefore the advent of industrialism and political democracy, it secured its\nincome by controlling the land and the government of nations; and the\neffects of its control can be read in the condition of the rural\npopulation of Russia, Austria, Eastern Germany, Italy, France before the\nRevolution, England, and especially Ireland. The development of industry\nhas changed the problem of economic and political control; but the\nessentials remain, as we can see in the condition of industrial\ncommunities and the history of labor legislation.\n\nThe fundamental sin of all dominant classes has been the taking of\nunearned incomes. Political oppression has always been a corollary of\neconomic parasitism, a means to an end. The combination of the two\nconstitutes the largest and most continuous form of organized evil in\nhuman history.\n\nJesus used the illustration of pegs maliciously driven into the path to\nmake men stumble and fall. It would require some illustration drawn from\nmodern machinery to express the wholesale prostration of bodies and souls\nwhere covetousness has secured continuous power and has been able to get\nin its full work. Anyone who has ever looked with human understanding at\nthe undersized and stupid peasants of countries ruled by their landlord\nclass, or at the sordid homes and pleasures of miners or industrial\nworkers where some corporation feared neither God nor the law, ought to\nget a comprehension of the power of evil that has rested like an iron yoke\non humanity.\n\nWe think most readily of the children of the poor as a product of\nexploitation; underfed and overstimulated, cut off from the clean\npleasures of nature, often tainted with vice before knowledge has come,\nand urged along by the appetites and cruel selfishness of older persons,\nthey are a standing accusation against society itself.(5) Jesus would have\nfelt that the children of the rich are an even worse product of\nexploitation than the poor. When \u201csociety\u201d plays, it burns up the labor of\nthousands like fireworks. The only possible justification for the\naggregations of wealth is that the rich are to act as the trustees and\ndirectors of the wealth of society; but their children\u2014except in\nconspicuous and fine exceptions\u2014are put out of contact with the people\nwhom they must know if they are to serve them, so that it takes heroic\neffort on the part of noble exceptions to get in contact with the people\nonce more, and to discover how they live. In all nations the atmosphere of\nthe aristocratic groups drugs the sense of obligation, and possesses the\nmind with the notion that the life and labor of men are made to play\ntennis with. The existence of great permanent groups, feeding but not\nproducing, dominating and directing the life of whole nations according to\ntheir own needs, may well seem a supreme proof of the power of evil in\nhumanity.\n\n\nIV\n\n\nIf evil is socialized, salvation must be socialized. The organization of\nthe Christian Church is a recognition of the social factor in salvation.\nIt is not enough to have God, and Christ, and the Bible. A group is\nneeded, organized on Christian principles, and expressing the Christian\nspirit, which will assimilate the individual and gradually make him over\ninto a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Salvation will rarely come to anyone\nwithout the mediation of some individual or group which already has\nsalvation. It may be very small and simple. \u201cWhere two or three are\ngathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.\u201d That saying\nrecognizes that an additional force is given to religion by its embodiment\nin a group of believers. Professor Royce has recently reasserted in modern\nterms the old doctrine that \u201cthere is no salvation outside of the Church,\u201d\ncalling the Church \u201cthe beloved community.\u201d Of course the question is how\nintensively Christian the Church can make its members. That will depend on\nthe question how Christian the Church itself is, and there\u2019s the rub.\n\nThe Church is the permanent social factor in salvation. But it has cause\nto realize that many social forces outside its immediate organization must\nbe used, if the entire community is to be christianized.\n\nIn the earliest centuries Christianity was practically limited to the life\nwithin the Church. Being surrounded by a hostile social order, and\ncompelled to fence off its members, it created a little duplicate social\norder within the churches where it sought to realize the distinctively\nChristian social life. Its influence there was necessarily restricted\nmainly to individual morality, family life, and neighborly intercourse,\nand here it did fundamental work in raising the moral standards. On the\nother hand, it failed to reorganize industry, property, and the State.\nEven if Christians had had an intelligent social and political outlook,\nany interference with the Roman Empire by the low-class adherents of a\nforbidden religion was out of the question. When the Church was recognized\nand favored under Constantine and his successors, it had lost its\ndemocratic composition and spirit, and the persons who controlled it were\nthe same sort of men who controlled the State.\n\nThe early age of the Church has had a profound influence in fixing the\nideals and aims of later times. The compulsory seclusion and confinement\nof the age of persecution are supposed to mark the mission of the Church.\nAs long as the social life in our country was simple and rural, the\nchurches, when well led, were able to control the moral life of entire\ncommunities. But as social organization became complex and the solidarity\nof neighborhood life was left behind, the situation got beyond the\ninstitutional influence of the churches. Evidently the fighting energies\nof Christianity will have to make their attack on broader lines, and\nutilize the scientific knowledge of society, which is now for the first\ntime at the command of religion, and the forces set free by political and\nsocial democracy. We can not restrict the modern conflict with evil to the\ndefensive tactics of a wholly different age. Wherever organized evil\nopposes the advance of the Kingdom of God, there is the battle-front.\nWherever there is any saving to be done, Christianity ought to be in it.\nThe intensive economic and sociological studies of the present generation\nof college students are a preparation for this larger warfare with evil.\nThese studies will receive their moral dignity and religious consecration\nwhen they are put at the service of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _The Natural Drift_\n\n1. If left alone, which way do we tend? Does a normal and sound individual\nneed spiritual reinforcement to live a good life?\n\n2. How do you account for the fact that the noblest movements are so\neasily debased?\n\nII. _Jesus and Human Sin_\n\n1. Did Jesus take a friendly or a gloomy view of human nature? How did the\nfact of sin in humanity impress him?\n\n2. Why did he condemn so sternly those who caused the weak to stumble?\nEstimate the relative force of the natural weakness of human nature, and\nof the pressure of socialized evil, when individuals go wrong.\n\n3. Do you agree with the exposition in the Daily Reading for the Fourth\nDay? Do men want to be let alone? Is this an evidence of sinful tendency?\n\n4. What personal experiences of Jesus prompted the parable of the tares?\nWas the conception of Satan in Jewish religion of individual or social\norigin? When did it have political significance?\n\nIII. _The Irrepressible Conflict_\n\n1. Why did Jesus foresee an inevitable conflict if the Kingdom of God was\nto come? Has history borne him out?\n\n2. Does mystical religion involve a man in conflict? Does ascetic\nreligion? Which books him for more conflict with social evil\u2014a life set on\nthe Kingdom of God on earth, or a faith set on the life to come?\n\n3. What form does the conflict with evil take in our personal life? What\nreinforcement does the Christian religion as a spiritual faith offer us?\nWhat personal experience have we of its failure or its effectiveness?\n\n4. What is meant by evil being socialized? In what ways does this increase\nthe ability of evil to defend and propagate itself?\n\n5. What are the most dangerous forms of organized evil today? How do they\nwork?\n\n6. What are the most disastrous \u201cstumbling blocks\u201d today for working\npeople? For business men? For students?\n\n7. The Church sings many militant hymns. Is the Church as a whole a\nfighting force today?\n\nIV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. How should an individual go about it to fight concrete and socialized\nevils in a community?\n\n2. How can a church get into the fight? Should the Church go into\npolitics? Why, or why not?\n\n3. Would Christianity be just as influential as a social power of\nsalvation if the Christian Church did not exist?\n\n4. Will the fight against evil ever be won? If not, is it worth fighting?\n\n\n\n\nChapter XI. The Cross As A Social Principle\n\n\n_Social Redemption is Wrought by Vicarious Suffering_\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Prophetic Succession\n\n\n    And he began to speak unto them in parables. A man planted a\n    vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a pit for the\n    winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and\n    went into another country. And at the season he sent to the\n    husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of\n    the fruits of the vineyard. And they took him, and beat him, and\n    sent him away empty. And again he sent unto them another servant;\n    and him they wounded in the head, and handled shamefully. And he\n    sent another; and him they killed: and many others; beating some,\n    and killing some. He had yet one, a beloved son: he sent him last\n    unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those\n    husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us\n    kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him,\n    and killed him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard. What\n    therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and\n    destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto\n    others.\u2014Mark 12:1-9.\n\n\nThe vineyard parable was meant as an epitome of Jewish history. By the\nservants who came to summon the nation to obedience, Jesus meant the\nprophets. The history of the Hebrew people was marked by a unique\nsuccession of men who had experienced God, who lived in the consciousness\nof the Eternal, who judged the national life by the standard of divine\nrighteousness, and who spoke to their generation as representatives of\nGod.(6) The spirit of these men and the indirect permanent influence they\ngained in their nation give the Old Testament its incomparable power to\nimpel and inspire us. They were the moving force in the spiritual progress\nof their nation. Yet Jesus here sketches their fate as one of suffering\nand rejection.\n\nHave other nations had a succession of men corresponding to the Hebrew\nprophets?\n\nAre there any in our own national history?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Suffering Servant of Jehovah\n\n\n    Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we\n    did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was\n    wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;\n    the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes\n    we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned\n    every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the\n    iniquity of us all.\n\n    He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he opened not his\n    mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that\n    before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. By\n    oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his\n    generation, who among them considered that he was cut off out of\n    the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom\n    the stroke was due?\u2014Isaiah 53:4-8.\n\n\nIn the latter part of Isaiah are a number of sections describing the\ncharacter and mission of \u201cthe servant of Jehovah.\u201d Whom did the writer\nmean? A single great personality? The suffering and exiled Hebrew nation?\nA godly and inspired group of prophets within the nation? The Christian\nChurch has always seen in this servant of Jehovah a striking prophecy of\nChrist. The fact that the interpretation has long been in question\nindicates that the characteristics of the servant of Jehovah can be traced\nin varying degrees in the nation, in the prophetic order, in single\nprophets, and preeminently in the great culminating figure of all\nprophethood. Isaiah 53 describes the servant of Jehovah as rejected and\ndespised, misunderstood, bearing the transgressions and chastisement of\nall. It is the first great formulation of the fact of vicarious suffering\nin humanity.\n\nWhy and how can the sins of a group fall on one?\n\n\n\nThird Day: A Contemporary Prophet\n\n\n    And as these went their way, Jesus began to say unto the\n    multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness\n    to behold? a reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out to\n    see? a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft\n    raiment are in kings\u2019 houses. But wherefore went ye out? to see a\n    prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. This\n    is he, of whom it is written,\n\n    Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,\n    Who shall prepare thy way before thee....\n\n    But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto\n    children sitting in the marketplaces, who call unto their fellows\n    and say, We piped unto you, and ye did not dance; we wailed, and\n    ye did not mourn.\n\n    For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a\n    demon. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say,\n    Behold a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans\n    and sinners! And wisdom is justified by her works.\u2014Matt. 11:7-10;\n    16-19.\n\n\nTo Jesus prophetism was not merely an historic fact, but a living reality.\nHe believed in present-day inspiration. He and his contemporaries had seen\none great prophet, fearless, heroic, with all the marks of the type, a\nmessenger of God inaugurating a new era of spiritual ferment (vs. 12, 13).\nBut John had to bear the prophet\u2019s lot. He was then in prison for the\ncrime of telling a king the truth, and was soon to die to please a\nvindictive woman. The people, too, had wagged their heads over him. Like\npouting children on the public square, who \u201cwon\u2019t play,\u201d whether the game\nproposed is a wedding or a funeral, the people had criticized John for\nbeing a gloomy ascetic, and found fault with Jesus for his shocking\ncheerfulness. There was no way of suiting them, and no way of making them\ntake the call of God to heart. Long before electricity was invented, human\nnature knew all about interposing nonconductors between itself and the\ntruth.\n\n_Have we ever noticed students interposing a general criticism between\nthemselves and a particular obligation?_\n\nCan it be that one of the uses of a higher education is to furnish greater\nfacility in fuddling inconvenient truth?\n\n\n\nFourth Day: Looking Forward to the Cross\n\n\n    And it came to pass, when the days were well-nigh come that he\n    should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to\n    Jerusalem.\u2014Luke 9:51.\n\n    In that very hour there came certain Pharisees, saying to him, Get\n    thee out, and go hence: for Herod would fain kill thee. And he\n    said unto them, Go and say to that fox, Behold, I cast out demons\n    and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am\n    perfected. Nevertheless I must go on my way to-day and to-morrow\n    and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out\n    of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets,\n    and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have\n    gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her own\n    brood under her wings, and ye would not!\u2014Luke 13:31-34.\n\n\nJesus early knew that the decision was going against him. He saw the cross\non the horizon of his life long before others saw it. Painters have\npictured him in his father\u2019s carpenter shop, with tools on his shoulder,\ngazing down at his shadow shaped like a cross. He accepted death\nconsciously and \u201cstedfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem,\u201d though he\nknew what was awaiting him. Jerusalem had acquired a sad preeminence as\nthe place where the struggles between the prophets and the heads of the\nnation were settled. He saw his own death as part of the prophetic\nsuccession. He went to it, not as a driven slave, but as a free spirit.\nThat jackal of a king, Herod, could not scare him out of Galilee. His time\nwas in his Father\u2019s hand. Today, tomorrow, and the day following, he would\nwork, and then he would be perfected.\n\n\n\nFifth Day: New Prophets to Follow\n\n\n    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the\n    sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the\n    righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we\n    should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the\n    prophets. Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of\n    them that slew the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your\n    fathers. Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape\n    the judgment of hell? Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets,\n    and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify;\n    and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and\n    persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the\n    righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the\n    righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye\n    slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily I say unto you,\n    All these things shall come upon this generation.\u2014Matt. 23:29-36.\n\n\nThis is the climax of the great invective against the religious leaders of\nthe nation. The last count in the indictment is that they were about to\ncomplete the record of their fathers by rejecting and persecuting the\nprophets of their generation. The fact had sunk into the public mind that\nformer generations had been guilty of this. \u201cIf we had been in the days of\nour fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of\nthe prophets.\u201d Jesus promises to make a test of this and foretells that\nthey will go the old way and so declare their spiritual solidarity with\nthe sins of the past. We see here that he thought of his disciples as\nmoving in the prophetic succession.\n\n\n    \u201cHast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,\n    Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against the\n                land?\u201d\n\n    \u201cNever shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath passed\n                by.\u201d\n\n\n\nSixth Day: The Cross for All\n\n\n    From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples, that he\n    must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and\n    chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be\n    raised up. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be\n    it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee. But he\n    turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a\n    stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God,\n    but the things of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any\n    man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his\n    cross, and follow me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose\n    it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find\n    it.\u2014Matt. 16:21-25.\n\n\nWhen the tide was turning against Jesus, he tested the attitude of the\ninner circles of his disciples, and drew from Peter on behalf of all a\nringing declaration of faith and loyalty (vs. 13-16). \u201cFrom that time\u201d\nJesus began to share with them his outlook toward death. Peter expressed\nthe shock which all felt and protested against the possibility. The\nvehemence with which Jesus repelled Peter\u2019s suggestion gives us a glimpse\nof the inner struggles in his mind, of which we get a fuller revelation in\nhis prayer in Gethsemane. But instead of receding from his prediction of\nthe cross, he expanded it by laying the obligation of prophetic suffering\non all his disciples. Their adjustment toward that destiny would at the\nsame time be the settlement of their own salvation. When the Kingdom of\nGod is at stake, a man saves his life by losing it and loses his life by\nsaving it, and the loss of his higher self can not be offset by any amount\nof external gain.\n\n_Looking ahead to the profession which we expect to enter, where do we\nforesee the possibility of losing our lives by trying to save them, or of\nsaving our lives by apparently losing them?_\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: The Consolations of the Prophet\n\n\n    Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye\n    therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of\n    men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their\n    synagogues they will scourge you; yea and before governors and\n    kings shall ye be brought for my sake, for a testimony to them and\n    to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up be not anxious how\n    or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour\n    what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit\n    of your Father that speaketh in you.\u2014Matt. 10:16-20.\n\n    Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read the scriptures,\n\n    The stone which the builders rejected,\n    The same was made the head of the corner;\n    This was from the Lord,\n    And it is marvellous in our eyes?\u2014Matt. 21:42.\n\n    Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness\u2019\n    sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men\n    shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil\n    against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:\n    for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the\n    prophets that were before you.\u2014Matt. 5:10-12.\n\n\nThese three passages express three great consolations for those who share\nprophetic opposition with Christ. They will have to face great odds;\nnumbers and weight will be against them. But there will be a quiet voice\nwithin to prompt them and sustain them: \u201cIt is not ye that speak, but the\nSpirit of your Father that speaketh in you.\u201d\n\nThe second consolation is that the higher court will reverse the verdict\nof the lower. The stonemasons may look a stone over and conclude that it\nwill not fit into the building; but the architect may have reserved that\nstone for the head of the corner. The prophet rarely lives to see his own\nhistorical vindication, but faith knows it is inevitable.\n\nThe third consolation is contained in the last of the Beatitudes. Those\nwho are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake may well rejoice for the\ncompany they are in, for the Leader whose name they bear, and for the\nKingdom of God which is now and ever shall be their heritage.\n\nImagine two classmates in the same profession, reaching the end of their\ncareer. The one has attained success, wealth, eminence, together with a\nreputation of never having done a courageous and self-sacrificing action,\nand with the consciousness that his soul has grown small as he has grown\nold. The other has been a fighter for the right, a conspicuous man, but\nhas kept out of office, tasting poverty and opposition with his family,\nyet with the consciousness that he has had the salt of the earth for his\nfriends and that he has put in some mighty good licks for righteousness.\n_Which would we rather be?_\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nChristian men have differed widely in interpreting the significance of\nChrist\u2019s suffering and death, but all have agreed that the cross was the\neffective culmination of his work and the key which unlocks the meaning of\nhis whole life. The Church has always felt that the death of Christ was an\nevent of eternal importance for the salvation of mankind, unique and\nwithout a parallel. It has an almost inexhaustible many-sidedness. We are\nexamining here but one aspect. We have seen in the passages studied this\nweek that Jesus himself linked his own suffering and rejection with the\nfate of the prophets who were before him and with the fate of his\ndisciples who would come after him. He saw a red line running through\nhistory, and his own life and death were part of it. He himself\ngeneralized the social value of his peculiar experience, and taught us to\nsee the cross as a great social principle of the Kingdom of God. He saw\nhis death as the highest demonstration of a permanent law of human life.\n\n\nI\n\n\nEvil is socialized, institutionalized, and militant. The Kingdom of God\nand its higher laws can displace it only by conflict. \u201cTruth forever on\nthe scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.\u201d This clash involves suffering.\nThis suffering will fall most heavily on those who most completely embody\nthe spirit and ideas of the Kingdom, and who have the necessary boldness\nto make the fight.\n\nIn most men the eternal moral conflict gets only confused understanding.\nSometimes they are aroused by sentimental pity or indignation, but soon\ntire again. If their own interests are affected they fight well. But there\nare men and women whose minds have been made so sensitive by personal\nexperiences or so cleansed by right education and by the spirit of God\nthat they take hold of the moral issues with a really adequate\nunderstanding. Living somehow on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Heaven,\nthey have learned to think and feel according to its higher ways, and when\nthey turn toward things as they now are, of course there is a collision;\nnot this time a collision of interests, but a clash of principles, of\njustice with wrong, of truth with crafty subterfuges, or of solidarity\nwith predatory selfishness.\n\nThe life and fate of these individuals anticipates the issues of history.\nThis is the prophetic quality of their lives. Working out the moral and\nintellectual problems in their minds before the masses have realized them,\nthey become the natural leaders in the fight, clarify the minds of others,\nand thus become, not only forerunners, but invaluable personal factors in\nthe moral progress of the race. \u201cThe single living spirits are the\neffective units in shaping history; all common tendencies working toward\nrealization must first be condensed as personal forces in such minds, and\nthen by interaction between them work their way to general recognition\u201d\n(Lotze). Lowell\u2019s \u201cPresent Crisis\u201d is perhaps the most powerful poetical\nexpression of the prophetic function in history.\n\n\n    \u201cCount me o\u2019er earth\u2019s chosen heroes\u2014they were souls that stood\n                alone,\n    While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone,\n    Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline\n    To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,\n    By one man\u2019s plain truth to manhood and to God\u2019s supreme design.\n\n    \"By the light of burning heretics Christ\u2019s bleeding feet I track,\n    Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back,\n    And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned\n    One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts hath\n                burned\n    Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven\n                upturned.\u201d\n\n\nII\n\n\nDuring the centuries when the Church was herself in need of redemption and\nher purification was resisted by the dominant ecclesiastical interests,\nsuch prophetic spirits as Arnold of Brescia, Wycliffe, Huss, and\nSavonarola were most frequently found battling for the freedom of the\nChurch from the despotic grafters inside and outside of the hierarchy, and\nfor the purity of the gospel. The Church was a chief part of the social\norder, and the reform of the Church was the preeminent social problem.\nToday the Church is on the whole free from graft, and as openminded as the\nstate of public intelligence permits it to be. Therefore the prophet minds\nare now set free to fight for the freedom of the people in political\ngovernment and for the substitution of cooperation for predatory methods\nin industry, and the clash is most felt on that field.\n\nThe law of prophetic suffering holds true as much as ever. Probably no\ngroup of men have ever undertaken to cleanse a city of profit-making vice\nwithout being made to suffer for it. In the last thirty years this country\nhas watched eminent men in public life in various great cities making a\nsincere drive to break the grip of a grafting police machine, or of a\npolitical clique, or of public service corporations. For a while such a\nman has public sentiment with him, for all communities have a desire to be\nmoral. But when it becomes clear that he really means what he says, and\nthat important incomes will be hurt, powerful forces set on him with abuse\nand ridicule, try to wreck his business or health, and sidetrack his\npolitical ambitions. An eminent editor in the Middle West, speaking before\nthe Press Association of his State several years ago, said: \u201cThere is not\na man in the United States today who has tried honestly to do anything to\nchange the fundamental conditions that make for poverty, disease, vice,\nand crime in our great cities, in our courts and in our legislatures, who,\nat the very time at which his efforts seemed most likely to succeed, has\nnot been suddenly turned upon and rent by the great newspaper\npublications.\u201d A volume of truthful biographical sketches of such leaders\nwould give us a history of the cross in politics, and would tell us more\nabout Christianity as an effective force in our country than some church\nstatistics.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nJesus took the sin of throttling the prophets very seriously. It is sin on\na higher level than the side-stepping of frail human nature, or the wrongs\ndone in private grievances. Since the Kingdom of God is the highest thing\nthere is, an attempt to block it or ruin it is the worst sin. Our hope for\nthe advance of the race and its escape from its permanent evils is\nconditioned on keeping our moral perceptions clear and strong. Suffocating\nthe best specimens of moral intelligence and intimidating the rest by\ntheir fate quenches the guiding light of mankind. Is anything worse?\n\nJesus held that the rejection of the prophets might involve the whole\nnation in guilt and doom. How does the action of Caiaphas and a handful of\nother men involve all the rest? By virtue of human solidarity. One sins\nand all suffer, because all are bound together. A dominant group acts for\nall, and drags all into disaster. This points to the moral importance of\ngood government. If exploiters and oppressors are in control of society,\nits collective actions will be guided and determined by the very men who\nhave most to fear from the Kingdom of God and most inclination to stifle\nthe prophetic voices.\n\nBut the same solidarity which acts as a conductor of sin will also serve\nas a basis to make the attack of the righteous few effective for all. If\nthe suffering of good men puts a just issue where all can see and\nunderstand, it intensifies and consolidates the right feeling of the\ncommunity. The suffering of a leader calls out passionate sympathy and\nloyalty, sometimes in a dangerous degree. In the labor movement almost any\nfault is forgiven to a man who has been in prison for the cause of labor,\nand death for a popular cause will idealize the memory of very ordinary or\nquestionable characters. But if the character of a leader is pure,\nsuffering accredits him and gives him power. The cross had an incomparable\nvalue in putting the cause of Christianity before the world. It placed\nJesus where mankind could never forget him, and it lit up the whole\nproblem of sin and redemption with the fire of the greatest of all\ntragedies.\n\n\n    \u201cThe cross, bold type of shame to homage turned,\n    Of an unfinished life that sways the world.\u201d\n\n\nIV\n\n\nBut not all righteous suffering is socially effective. A good man may be\nsuppressed before he has won a following, or even before he has wrought\nout his message in his own mind, and his suppression leaves only a few\nbubbles on the waters of oblivion. In that case his life has failed to\ndischarge the redemptive force contained in it. It only adds a little more\nto the horror and tragedy of a sinful, deaf, and blood-stained world. Many\nof the men whose lives ebbed away behind the cruel silence of the walls of\nthe Spanish Inquisition, were such men as Spain needed most. What saving\neffect did their death exercise? The uncounted patriots whose chains have\nclanked on the march to Siberian exile, have not yet freed Russia from its\nblind oligarchy. Our faith is that their lives were dear to God, and that\ntheir sorrows and the bitter tears of those who loved them are somehow\npart of an accumulating force which will one day save Russia. But this is\nreligious faith, \u201ca conviction of things not seen.\u201d We can not prove it.\nWe can only trust.\n\nMeanwhile it is our business to see that no innocent blood is wasted. Pain\nis a merciful and redemptive institution of nature when pain acts as an\nalarm-bell to direct intelligent attention to the cause of the pain. If\npain does not force the elimination of its own cause, it is an added evil.\nThe death of the innocent, through oppression, child labor, dirt diseases,\nor airless tenements, ought to arrest the attention of the community and\nput the social cause of their death in the limelight. In that case they\nhave died a vicarious death which helps to redeem the rest from a social\nevil, and anyone who utilizes their suffering for that end, shows his\nreverence for their death. We owe that duty in even higher measure to the\nprophets, who are not passive and unconscious victims, but who set\nthemselves intelligently in opposition to evil. The moral soundness of a\nnation can be measured by the swiftness and accuracy with which it\nunderstands its prophetic voices, or personalities, or events. The next\nbest thing to being a prophet is to interpret a prophet. This is one of\nthe proper functions of trained and idealistic minds, such as college men\nand women should possess. The more the Kingdom of God is present, the less\nwill prophets be allowed to suffer. When it is fully come, the cross will\ndisappear.\n\n\nV\n\n\nThe social principle of the cross contains a challenge to all who are\nconscious of qualities of leadership. Let the average man do average\nduties, but let the strong man shoulder the heavy pack. It is no more than\nfair that persons of great natural power should deliberately choose work\ninvolving social hardships. At present the theory seems to be that the\nstrong have a right to secure places where they will be freed from the\nnecessity of exerting themselves, and can lay their support on the\nshoulders of the poor. That is the law of the cross reversed. Our\nsemi-pagan society has always practiced vicarious suffering by letting the\npoor bear the burdens of the rich in addition to their own. Instead of\nencouraging the capable to hunt after predatory profit and entrusting\npublic powers to those who have been most successful in preying, we ought\nto encourage solidaristic feeling, and give both power and honor to those\nwho are ready to serve the commonwealth at severe cost to themselves.\n\nWhat has the principle of the cross to say to college men and women? If\nthey have an exceptional outfit, let them do exceptional work. A knight in\narmor was expected to charge where others could not venture. A college\neducation entitles a Christian man to some hard knocks. It seems\ncontemptible for us to walk off with the pleasures and powers of\nintellectual training, and to leave the work of protecting children and\nworking girls against exploitation to men and women without education,\nwithout leisure, and without social standing, who will have to pay double\nthe tale of effort for every bit of success they win. In some European\ncountries foreign mission service has been left mainly to men and women of\nthe artisan class. In our country college men and women have volunteered\nfor it. That is as it ought to be. On the other hand, in the struggle for\npolitical liberty the European universities have taken a braver and more\nsacrificial part than has ever fallen to our lot.\n\nThose who are conscious of a prophetic mission have a redoubled motive for\na clean, sober, and sincere life. Especially in its initial stages an\nethical movement is identified with its leaders and tested by their\ncharacter. A good man can get a hearing for an unpopular cause by the\ntrust he inspires. His cause banks on his credit. The flawed private\ncharacter or dubious history of a leader is a drag. It is worse yet if a\nman whose name has long been a guarantee for his message, backslides and\nbrings doubt upon all his previous professions. Cases could be mentioned\nwhere noble movements were wrecked for years because a leader forfeited\nhis honor. Constant fighting against evil involves subtle temptations. To\nstand alone, to set your own conviction against the majority, to challenge\nwhat is supposed to be final, to disregard the conventional standards\u2014this\nmay lead to dangerous habits of mind. If we propose to spread a lot of\ncanvas in a high wind, we need the more ballast in the hold. Through the\nthin partitions of a summer hotel, a man heard Moody praying God to save\nhim from Moody. Imagine what it must be to lose standing and honor among\nyour fellow men by secret weakness. Imagine also the poignant pain if your\ndisgrace pulls down a cause which you have loved for years and which in\npurer days you vowed to follow to its coronation.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _Vicarious Suffering and Social Progress_\n\n1. Does suffering benefit humanity? Titus crucified thousands of Jews\nduring the destruction of Jerusalem. Did their death have any saving\neffect?\n\n2. What is the connection between vicarious suffering and social\nsalvation?\n\nII. _Prophetic Suffering_\n\n1. What was the fate of the Old Testament prophets? What was their\ninfluence in the life of Israel? To what extent is Mark 12:1-9 a fair\nepitome of the treatment of the prophets by the Hebrew nation?\n\n2. What is the significance of Isa. 53:4-8? Why and how can the sins of a\ngroup fall on another?\n\n3. Where did Jesus see the continuity of prophetic suffering in his own\ntimes?\n\n4. What place did he give to vicarious suffering in the life of his\nfollowers and in the conquest of the Kingdom? How does the law of the\nCross connect with the fact of solidarity?\n\n5. In what respects was Christ\u2019s Cross unique? In what respects does it\nexpress a general spiritual law?\n\nIII. _Vicarious Suffering Today_\n\n1. Give instances of persons in public life today whose careers were\nwrecked because they assailed socialized evil or graft. How does this\ndiffer from the fate of the prophets?\n\n2. Are the sacrifices of prophetic leaders ever useless and actually\nineffective? Do you feel an inward protest against that? On what ground?\n\n3. To what extent is the call to be a Christian a challenge to vicarious\nsuffering? What social significance, then, would Christian baptism have?\n\n4. Is there anything wrong with a Christian life which does not incur\nsuffering?\n\n5. Would suffering be normal in the religious life of the young?\n\n6. Why does this social principle apply especially to college men and\nwomen?\n\nIV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. What qualities constitute a man a prophet?\n\n2. Are there embryonic prophets? Or spent prophets? Is a prophet\nnecessarily a saint?\n\n3. Do prophets arise where religion deals with private life only? What is\nthe social value of prophetic personalities?\n\n4. Name men in secular history and literature who have the marks of the\nprophet. Any in recent times?\n\n5. Does learning create prophetic vision or blur it?\n\n6. Does the ordinary religion today put a man in line for the Cross or for\na job as a bank director?\n\n7. Can you think of anything that would bring the Cross back into the life\nof the churches today?\n\n8. Would vicarious suffering diminish if society became Christianized?\n\n\n\n\nChapter XII. A Review And A Challenge\n\n\n_The Social Principles of Jesus Demand Personal Allegiance and Social\nAction_\n\nDAILY READINGS\n\n\n\nFirst Day: The Social Mission of Christians\n\n\n    Ye are the salt of the earth.... Ye are the light of the\n    world.\u2014Matt. 5:13, 14.\n\n\n\u201cJesus speaks here with the consciousness of an historic mission to the\nwhole of humanity. Yet it was a Nazarene carpenter speaking to a group of\nGalilean peasants and fishermen. Under the circumstances, and at the time,\nit was an utterance of the most daring faith\u2014faith in himself, faith in\nthem, faith in what he was putting into them, faith in faith. Jesus failed\nand was crucified, first his body by his enemies, and then his spirit by\nthe men who bore his name. But that failure was so amazing a success that\ntoday it takes an effort on our part to realize that it required any faith\non his part to inaugurate the Kingdom of God and to send out his\napostolate.\u201d(7)\n\nIf the antiseptic and enlightening influence of the sincere followers of\nJesus were eliminated from our American communities, what would be the\npresumable social effects?\n\n\n\nSecond Day: The Great Initiator of the Kingdom of God\n\n\n    At that season Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,\n    Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from\n    the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea,\n    Father, for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. All things have\n    been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son,\n    save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son,\n    and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. Come unto me,\n    all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\n    Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in\n    heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is\n    easy, and my burden is light.\u2014Matt. 11:25-30.\n\n\nThis is one of the most thrilling passages in the Bible. It has always\nbeen understood as a call to intimate religion, as the appeal of a\npersonal Saviour to those who are loaded with sin and weary of\nworldliness. But in fact it expresses the sense of a revolutionary mission\nto society.\n\nJesus had the consciousness of a unique relation to the Father, which made\nhim the mediator of a new understanding of God and of life (v. 27). This\nnew insight was making a new intellectual alignment, leaving the\nphilosophers and scholars as they were, and fertilizing the minds of\nsimple people (v. 25). It is an historical fact that the brilliant body of\nintellectuals of the first and second centuries was blind to what proved\nto be the most fruitful and influential movement of all times, and it was\nleft to slaves and working men to transmit it and save it from suppression\nat the cost of their lives.\n\nThen Jesus turns to the toiling and heavy laden people about him with the\noffer of a new kind of leadership\u2014none of the brutal self-assertion of the\nC\u00e6sars and of all conquerors here, but a gentle and humble spirit, and an\nobedience which was pleasure and brought release to the soul.\n\nThese words express his consciousness of being different, and of bearing\nwithin him the beginnings of a new spiritual constitution of humanity.\n\nWhen individuals have really come under the new law of Christ, does Jesus\nmake good?\n\nWould he also make good if humanity based its collective life on the\nsocial principles which we have studied?\n\nIf the choice is between C\u00e6sar and Christ, which shall it be?\n\n\n\nThird Day: The Kingdom of Truth\n\n\n    Pilate therefore entered again into the Pr\u00e6torium, and called\n    Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus\n    answered, Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee\n    concerning me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and\n    the chief priests, delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?\n    Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom\n    were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should\n    not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from\n    hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus\n    answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been\n    born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear\n    witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my\n    voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?\n\n    And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and\n    saith unto them, I find no crime in him.\u2014John 18:33-38.\n\n\nAll kingdoms rest on force; formerly on swords and bayonets, now on big\nguns. To overthrow them you must prepare more force, bigger guns. Jesus\nwas accused before Pilate of being leader of a force revolution aiming to\nmake him king. He claimed the kingship, but repudiated the force. To his\nmind the absence of force resistance was characteristic of his whole\nundertaking. Instead, his power was based on the appeal and attractiveness\nof truth. When Pilate heard about \u201ctruth\u201d he thought he had a sophist\nbefore him, one more builder of metaphysical systems, and expressed the\nskepticism of the man on the street: \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d But Jesus was not a\nteacher of abstract doctrine, whatever his expounders have made of him.\nHis mind was bent on realities. If we substitute \u201creality\u201d for \u201ctruth\u201d in\nhis saying here, we shall get near his thought.\n\nWhich is more durable, power based on force, or power based on spiritual\ncoherence?\n\n\n\nFourth Day: A Mental Transformation\n\n\n    I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to\n    present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,\n    which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to\n    this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,\n    that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will\n    of God.\u2014Rom. 12:1, 2.\n\n\nIn the first century the Christians were a new social group, confronting\nthe social order of the Roman Empire with a new religious faith, a\nrevolutionary hope, and a powerful impulse of fraternity. Those who had\ncome out of pagan society still felt the pull of its loose pleasures and\nmoral maxims, and of its idolatry. Paul here challenges them to submit\nfully to the social assimilation of the new group. It involved an\nintellectual renewal, a new spiritual orientation, which must have been\nsearching and painful. It involved the loss of many social pleasures, of\nbusiness profit and civic honor, and it might at any time mean banishment,\ntorture, and death. The altar symbol of sacrifice might become a scarlet\nreality. Yet see with what triumphant joy and assurance Paul speaks.\n\nIf a student should dedicate himself to the creation of a Christian social\norder today, would it still require an intellectual renewing?\n\nWould it cramp him or enlarge him?\n\n\n\nFifth Day: The Distinctive Contribution of Christ\n\n\n    There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man,\n    coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made\n    through him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and\n    they that were his own received him not. But as many as received\n    him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to\n    them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of\n    the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the\n    Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory,\n    glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and\n    truth. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came\n    through Jesus Christ.\u2014John 1:9-14, 17.\n\n\nHere is the tragedy of the Gospel story, seen from a long perspective and\nstated in terms of Greek philosophy. The Light which lighteth every man,\nthe _Logos_ through whom God had created the _kosmos_, had come to this\nworld in human form, and been rejected. But some had received him, and\nthese had received a new life through him, which made them children of\nGod. They had discovered in him a new kind of spiritual splendor,\ncharacterized by \u201cgrace and truth.\u201d Even Moses had contributed only law to\nhumanity; Christ was identified with grace and truth.\n\nHow would you paraphrase the statements of John to express the attitude of\nnineteen centuries to Christ?\n\nWhat has he in fact done for those who have received him?\n\nWhat would be the modern equivalent of \u201cgrace and truth\u201d to express the\ndistinctive contribution of Christ to human history?\n\n\n\nSixth Day: The Master of the Greatest Game\n\n\n    Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great\n    a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which\n    doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race\n    that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter\n    of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the\n    cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the\n    throne of God. For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying\n    of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in\n    your souls.\u2014Heb. 12:1-3.\n\n\nThe man who wrote the little treatise from which this is quoted saw the\nhistory of humanity summed up in the live spirits who had the power of\nprojection into the future. Faith is the quality of mind which sees things\nbefore they are visible, which acts on ideals before they are realities,\nand which feels the distant city of God to be more dear, substantial, and\nattractive than the edible and profitable present. Read Hebrews 11. So he\ncalls on Christians to take up the same manner of life, and compares them\nwith men running a race in an amphitheatre packed with all the generations\nof the past who are watching them make their record. But he bids them keep\ntheir eye on Jesus who starts them at the line and will meet them at the\ngoal, and who has set the pace for good and fleet men for all time.\n\nWhat is the social and evolutionary value of the men of \u201cfaith\u201d in the\nsense of Hebrews 11?\n\n_Have we left Jesus behind us by this time?_\n\n\n\nSeventh Day: The Beginning of the Greatest Movement in History\n\n\n    Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee,\n    preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled,\n    and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the\n    gospel.\n\n    And passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew\n    the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were\n    fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will\n    make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they left the\n    nets, and followed him. And going on a little further, he saw\n    James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in\n    the boat mending the nets. And straightway he called them: and\n    they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired\n    servants, and went after him.\u2014Mark 1:14-20.\n\n\nHere we have the beginning of organized Christianity. This is the germinal\ncell of that vast social movement of which foreign missions, the\nestablishment of the American Republic, and the modern labor movement are\nproducts. It began with repentance, faith, and self-sacrificing action,\nand it will always have to advance by the same means. To those four men\nJesus was an incarnate challenge. He dared them to come, and promised to\nput their lives on a higher level. He stands over against us with the same\nchallenge. He points to the blackened fields of battle, to the economic\ninjustice and exploitation of industry, to the paganism and sexualism of\nour life. Is this old order of things to go on forever? Will our children,\nand their children, still be ground through the hopper? Or have we faith\nto adventure our life in a new order, the Kingdom of God?\n\n\n\nStudy for the Week\n\n\nHas our study of the \u201cSocial Principles of Jesus\u201d revealed a clear and\nconsistent scheme of life, worthy of our respect?\n\n\nI\n\n\nWe have seen that three convictions were axiomatic within Jesus, so that\nall his reasoning and his moral imperatives were based on them, just as\nall thought and work in physics is based on gravitation. These convictions\nwere the sacredness of life and personality, the solidarity of the human\nfamily, and the obligation of the strong to stand up for all whose life is\nimpaired or whose place within humanity is denied.\n\nIt can not be questioned that these convictions were a tremendous and\nspontaneous force in the spirit of Jesus. That alone suffices to align him\nwith all idealistic minds, to whom man is more than matter, more than\nlabor force, a mysterious participant of the spiritual powers of the\nuniverse. It aligns him with all men of solidaristic conviction, who are\nworking for genuine community life in village and city, for a nation with\nfraternal institutions and fraternal national consciousness, and for a\ncoming family of nations and races. It aligns him with all exponents of\nthe democratic social spirit of our day, who feel the wrongs of the common\npeople and are trying to make the world juster and more fraternal.\n\nThe best forces of modern life are converging along these lines. There is\nno contradiction between them and the spirit of Jesus. On the contrary,\nthey are largely the product of his spirit, diffused and organized in the\nWestern world. He was the initiator; we are the interpreters and agents.\nNor has he been outstripped like an early inventor and discoverer whose\ncrude work is honored only because others were able to improve on it.\nQuite the contrary; the more vividly these spiritual convictions glow in\nthe heart of any man, the more will he feel that Jesus is still ahead,\nstill the inspiring force. As soon as we get beyond theory to life and\naction, we know that we are dependent for the spiritual powers in modern\nlife on the continued influence of Jesus Christ over the lives of others.\n\n\nII\n\n\nWe saw in the second place that Jesus had a social ideal, the Reign of God\non earth, in which God\u2019s will would be done. This ideal with him was not a\nUtopian and academic fancy, but the great prize and task of life toward\nwhich he launched all his energies. He called men to turn away from the\nevil ways of the old order, and to get a mind fit for the new. He set the\nable individuals to work, and put the spirit of intense labor and devotion\ninto them. He proposed to effect the transition from the old order to the\nnew by expanding the area of moral obligation and raising the standards of\nmoral relationships.\n\nBy having such a social ideal at all, he draws away from all who are\nstationary and anchored in the world as it is; from all who locate the\npossibility of growth and progress in the individual only; and from all\nwhose desire for perfection runs away from this world to a world beyond\nthe grave.\n\nBy moving toward the new social order of the Kingdom of God with such\nwholeness of determination, he is the constant rebuke for all of us who\nare trying to live with a \u201cdivided allegiance,\u201d straddling between the\niniquities of force, profit, and inhumanity, and the fraternal\nrighteousness of the Gospel we profess to believe. Jesus at least was no\ntime-server, no Mr. Facing-both-ways, no hypocrite; and whenever we touch\nhis elbow by inadvertence, a shiver of reality and self-contempt runs\nthrough us.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nWe saw in the third place that Jesus dealt with serious intelligence with\nthe great human instincts that go wrong.\n\nThe capacity for leadership and the desire for it have fastened the\ndamning institutions of tyranny and oppression on humanity and tied us up\nso completely that the rare historical chances of freedom and progress\nhave been like a tumultuous and brief escape. Yet Jesus saw that ambition\nwas not to be suppressed, but to be yoked to the service of society. In\nthe past, society was allowed to advance and prosper only if this advanced\nthe prosperity and security of its ruling classes. Jesus proposed that\nthis be reversed, so that the leaders would have to earn power and honor\nby advancing the welfare of society by distinguished service at cost to\nthemselves.\n\nThe desire for private property has been the chief outlet for selfish\nimpulses antagonistic to public welfare. To gain private wealth men have\nslaughtered the forests, contaminated the rivers, drained the fertility of\nthe soil, monopolized the mineral wealth of the country, enslaved\nchildhood, double-yoked motherhood, exhausted manhood, hog-tied community\nundertakings, and generally acted as the dog in the manger toward\nhumanity. Jesus opposed accumulation without moral purpose, the inhumanity\nof property differences, and the fatal absorption of money-making. Yet he\nwas not ascetic. It is probably safe to say that he would not be against\nprivate property in so far as it serves the common good, and not against\npublic property at all.\n\nLike ambition and the property instinct, the religious impulse may go\nwrong, and subject society to its distortions or tyranny. Jesus always\nstood for an ethical and social outcome of religion. He sought to harness\nthe great power of religion to righteousness and love. With a mind so\npurely religious we might expect that he would make all earthly and social\ninterests subservient to personal religion. The fact that he reversed it,\nseems clear proof that he was socially minded and that the Kingdom of God\nas a right social organism was the really vital thing to him.\n\n\nIV\n\n\nWe have seen, finally, that Jesus had a deep sense of the sin and evil in\nthe world. Human nature is frail; men of evil will are powerful; organized\nevil is in practical control. Consequently social regeneration involves\nnot only growth but conflict. The way to the Kingdom of God always has\nbeen and always will be a _via dolorosa_. The cross is not accidental, but\nis a law of social progress.\n\nThese conceptions together seem to shape up into a consistent conception\nof social life. It is not the modern scientific scheme, but a religious\nview of life. But it blends incomparably better with modern science than\nthe scholastic philosophy or theology of an age far nearer to us than\nJesus. It is strange how little modern knowledge has to discount in the\nteachings of Jesus. As Romanes once pointed out,(8) Plato followed\nSocrates and lived amidst a blaze of genius never since equalled; he is\nthe greatest representative of human reason in the direction of\nspirituality unaided by revelation; \u201cbut the errors in the dialogues reach\nto absurdity in reason and to sayings shocking to the moral sense.\u201d\n\nThe writer of this little book has come back to an intensive study of\nJesus at intervals of years, and every time it was like a fresh\nrevelation, leaving a sense of mental exhilaration and a new sense of joy\nin truth. Never was there a feeling that Jesus was exhausted and had\nnothing more to say.\n\nFor a true valuation of his intellectual contribution to mankind we must\nremember that we have not a page of his own writing. We are dependent on\nthe verbal memory of his disciples; so far as we know, nothing was written\ndown for years. The fragments which survived probably had to stand the\nordeal of translation from the Aramaic to the Greek. Simply from the point\nof view of literature, it is an amazing thing that anything characteristic\nin Jesus survived at all. But it did. His sayings have the sparkle of\ngenius and personality; the illustrations and epigrams which he threw off\nin fertile profusion are still clinchers; even his humor plays around\nthem. Critics undertake to fix on the genuine sayings by internal\nevidence. Only a mind of transcendent originality could win its way to\nposterity through such obstructions.\n\nBut we ought not to forget the brevity of our material when we try to\nbuild up a coherent conception of his outlook on society. There is little\nuse in stickling on details. The main thing is the personality of Jesus,\nhis religious and ethical insight into the nature and needs of the social\nlife of mankind, the vital power of religious conviction which he was able\nto put behind righteousness, and the historical force which he set going\nthrough history.\n\nFrom the indirect influences which Jesus Christ set in motion, no man or\nwoman or child in America can escape. We live on him. Even those who\nattack the Christian Church, or who repudiate what they suppose Christ to\nstand for, do so with spiritual weapons which they have borrowed from him.\nBut it does make a great difference whether the young men and women of our\nday give their conscious and intelligent allegiance to Christianity or\nhold aloof in misunderstanding. Without them the Christian movement will\nmark time on old issues. With them it will dig new irrigation channels and\nstring the wires for new power transmission.\n\nIn return, Christianity can do more for students than they themselves are\nlikely to realize in youth. Men grow tired. Their moral enthusiasm flags.\nScientific sociology may remain academic, cold, and ineffective. We need\ninspiration, impulse, will power, and nothing can furnish such steady\naccessions of moral energy as living religion. Science and the Christian\nfaith combined are strong. Those who succeed in effecting a combination of\nthese two without insincerity or cowardice are the coming leaders.\n\nIf a student\u2019s mind has given inward consent to the teachings of Jesus in\nthis course of study, that constitutes an appeal for personal\ndiscipleship. Can we go with Christ in living out these principles, and\nmeanwhile draw on his spiritual wealth to build up our growing life? If\nthere is a student who can not at present affirm all that the Christian\nChurch holds concerning the nature of Christ, why should he not approach\nhim as the earliest disciples did, by personal love and obedience,\nfollowing him and cooperating with him in the business of the Kingdom of\nGod, and arriving in time at full faith in his Messiahship? A great and\nfirm faith is the product and prize of a lifetime of prayer and loving\naction. \u201cLight is sown to the righteous.\u201d As we gather the wisdom of life,\nand find that while we move from knowledge to knowledge, we are also\nadvancing from mystery to mystery, many of us will be ready and glad to\njoin in the highest affirmation of faith about Jesus Christ, in whom we\nhave learned to see God.\n\n\n    \u201cIf Jesus Christ is a man,\n    And only a man, I say\n    That of all mankind I cleave to him,\n    And to him I cleave alway.\n\n    \u201cIf Jesus Christ is a God,\n    And the only God, I swear\n    I will follow him through heaven and hell,\n    The earth, the sea, and the air.\u201d\n\n    \u2014RICHARD WATSON GILDER.\n\n\nIf Christianity henceforth is to discharge its full energy in the\nregeneration of social life, it especially needs the allegiance of college\nmen and women who have learned to understand to some degree the facts and\nlaws of human society. The development of what is called \u201cSocial\nChristianity\u201d or \u201cthe social gospel,\u201d is a fusion between the new\nunderstanding created by the social sciences, and the teachings and moral\nideals of Christianity. This combination was inevitable; it has already\nregistered social effects of the highest importance; if it can win the\nactive minds of the present generation of college students, it will swing\na part of the enormous organized forces of the Christian Church to bear on\nthe social tasks of our American communities, and that will help to create\nthe nobler America which we see by faith.\n\nChristians have never fully understood Christianity. A purer comprehension\nof its tremendous contents is always necessary. Think what it would\nsignify to a local community if all sincere Christian people in it should\ninterpret their obligation in the social terms which we have been using;\nif they should seek not only their own salvation, but the reign of God in\ntheir own town; if they should cultivate the habit of seeing a divine\nsacredness in every personality, should assist in creating the economic\nfoundations for fraternal solidarity, and if, as Christians, they should\nchampion the weak in their own community. We need a power of renewal in\nour American communities that will carry us across the coming social\ntransition, and social Christianity can supply it by directing the plastic\nforce of the old faith of our fathers to the new social tasks.\n\nJesus was the initiator of the Kingdom of God. It is a real thing, now in\noperation. It is within us, and among us, gaining ground in our\nintellectual life and in our social institutions. It overlaps and\ninterpenetrates all existing organizations, raising them to a higher level\nwhen they are good, resisting them when they are evil, quietly\nrevolutionizing the old social order and changing it into the new. It\nsuffers terrible reverses; we are in the midst of one now; but after a\ntime it may become apparent that a master hand has turned the situation\nand laid the basis of victory on the wrecks of defeat. The Kingdom of God\nis always coming; you can never lay your hand on it and say, \u201cIt is here.\u201d\nBut such fragmentary realizations of it as we have, alone make life worth\nliving. The memories which are still sweet and dear when the fire begins\nto die in the ashes, are the memories of days when we lived fully in the\nKingdom of Heaven, toiling for it, suffering for it, and feeling the\nstirring of the godlike and eternal life within us. The most humiliating\nand crushing realization is that we have betrayed our heavenly Fatherland\nand sold out for thirty pieces of silver. We often mistake it. We think we\nsee its banner in the distance, when it is only the bloody flag of the old\norder. But a man learns. He comes to know whether he is in God\u2019s country,\nespecially if he sees the great Leader near him.\n\n\n\nSuggestions for Thought and Discussion\n\n\nI. _The Social Principles of Jesus_\n\n1. Sum up the social principles of Jesus which we have worked out in this\ncourse.\n\n2. Do they seem incisive? Would they demand far-reaching social changes?\nWhat changes?\n\n3. What conceptions acquired in philosophical and social science studies\nconnect fruitfully with the principles of Jesus? Do any scientific\nconceptions conflict with the essential ideas of Jesus?\n\nII. _Social Salvation_\n\n1. What is your frank estimate of the value of the social principles of\nJesus as a religious and ethical basis for the regeneration of society?\n\n2. Does the spiritual development of modern life tend toward the position\nof Jesus or away from it?\n\n3. What opportunities and methods does modern life offer for carrying out\nthese principles in our social order?\n\n4. If society cannot be saved under the spiritual leadership of Jesus, how\ncan it be saved?\n\nIII. _The Leader_\n\n1. As this course proceeded, has our respect or reverence for Jesus Christ\nincreased or diminished? In what ways?\n\n2. Would it be possible to join the forward Christian forces in working\nfor the Kingdom of God even if the theological questions are still\nunsolved in our minds?\n\n3. What seem now the best methods of carrying out these principles in our\nown community and in the world?\n\nIV. _For Special Discussion_\n\n1. Does the salvation of society seem to make the salvation of the\nindividual unnecessary or trivial? Have you lost interest in it?\n\n2. How should social and personal salvation connect?\n\n3. What would a loyal religious dedication to Christ and Christianity mean\nto our scientific social intelligence?\n\n4. What would it mean to the course of our life?\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n    1 Rauschenbusch, \u201cPrayers of the Social Awakening,\u201d p. 15, on \u201cThe\n      Social Meaning of the Lord\u2019s Prayer.\u201d\n\n    2 See the chapter on \u201cThe Tragedy of Dives\u201d in Rauschenbusch,\n      \u201cChristianizing the Social Order,\u201d p. 291.\n\n    3 Edersheim, \u201cLife and Times of Jesus, the Messiah,\u201d Appendix XVII,\n      give a detailed account of Sabbath regulations.\n\n    4 See, for instance, Begbie, \u201cTwice Born Men.\u201d\n\n    5 See Jane Addams, \u201cA New Conscience and an Ancient Evil.\u201d\n\n    6 Why not give a fresh reading to the Hebrew prophets? Read them as if\n      they had just been dug up in the East. Read them with the insight\n      into social life developed by economic and sociological work in\n      college. Read them with the critical social and political situations\n      in mind. Read entire books at a sitting to absorb the spiritual\n      valor of the prophets and their sense of God and of righteousness.\n      George Adam Smith\u2019s \u201cThe Book of the Twelve Prophets\u201d has fine\n      social understanding, and gives the necessary historical background.\n\n    7 \u201cChristianity and the Social Crisis,\u201d p. 415.\n\n    8 G. J. Romanes, \u201cThoughts on Religion,\u201d p. 157.","title":"The Social Principles of Jesus","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":60148}