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Page 6
(1) It has given men a new interest in religion. The intricacies of
social problems predispose men to value an invisible Ally, and such
prepossession is, as Herbert Spencer said, "nine-points of belief." The
social character of the Christian religion, with its Father-God and its
ideals of the Kingdom, gives it a peculiar charm to those whose hearts
have been touched with a passion for social righteousness. A recent
historian of the thought of the last century, after reviewing its
scientific and philosophic tendencies, makes the remark that "an
increasing number of thinkers of our age expect the next step in the
solution of the great problems of life to be taken by practical
religion."
(2) It has made us realize that religion is essentially social. Men's
souls are born of the social religious consciousness; are nourished by
contact with the society of believers, in fellowship with whom they grow
"a larger soul," and find their destiny in a social religious
purpose--the Kingdom of God.
(3) It has taught us that religious susceptibility is intimately
connected with social status. Spiritual movements have always found some
relatively unimpressionable classes. In primitive Christian times "not
many well-educated, not many influential, not many nobly born were
called"; and in our own age the two least responsive strata in society
are the topmost and the bottom-most--those so well off that they often
feel no pressure of social obligation, and those without the sense of
social responsibility because they have nothing. It is the interest of
spiritual religion to do away with both these strata, placing social
burdens on the former and imposing social privileges on the latter, for
responsibility proves to be the chief sacrament of religion.
(4) It has brought the Church to a new place of prominence in Christian
thought. Men realize their indebtedness for their own spiritual life to
the collective religious experience of the past, represented in the
Church; their need of its fellowship for their growth in faith and
usefulness; and the necessity of organized religious effort, if society
is to be leavened with the Spirit of Christ. Church membership becomes a
duty for every socially minded Christian. And the social purpose renders
Church unity a pressing task for the existing Christian communions. John
Bunyan's pilgrim could make his progress from the City of Destruction to
the New Jerusalem with a few like-minded companions; but a Christian
whose aim is the transformation of the City of Destruction into the City
of God needs the co�peration of every fellow believer. Denominational
exclusiveness becomes intolerable to the Christian who finds a whole
world's redemption laid on his conscience.
(5) It demands a social reinterpretation of many of the Church's
doctrines, a reinterpretation which gives them richer meaning. The
vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ, for example, becomes intelligible
and kindling to those who have a social conscience and know something of
bearing the guilt of others; and the New Testament teaching of the Holy
Spirit is much more real and clear to those who have felt the social
spirit of our day lifting them out of themselves into the life of the
community, quickening their consciences and sympathies, and giving them
a sense of brotherhood with men and women very unlike themselves. Vinet
wrote a generation ago, "_L'Esprit Saint c'est Dieu social_."
We have by no means exhausted the list of quarries from which stones,
and stones already prepared for our purpose, can be and are taken for
the edifice of our Christian convictions. The life of men with Christ in
God preserves its continuity through the ages; it has to interpret
itself to every generation in new forms of thought. Under old monarchies
it was the custom on the accession of a sovereign to call in the coins
of his predecessor and remint them with the new king's effigy. The
silver and the gold remain, but the impress on them is different. The
reminting of our Christian convictions is a somewhat similar process:
the precious ore of the religious experience continues, but it bears the
stamp of the current ruling ideas in men's view of the world. But
lifeless metal, however valuable, cannot offer a parallel to the vital
experiences of the human spirit. The remolding of the forms of its
convictions does more than conserve the same quantity of experience; a
more commodious temple of thought enables the Spirit of faith to expand
the souls of men within. In theology by altering boundaries we often
gain territory. We not only make the map of our soul's life with God
clearer to ourselves, so that we live within its confines more
intelligently; we actually increase the size of the map, and possess a
larger life with God.
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