tion of power; organization, the more complex it grows, makes greater demands on personality. Modern machinery calls for better training in its engineers; modern industry requires more skill in its mechanics; modern politics, statesmanship, administration, have become more and more dependent upon competent men who shall control and direct the mighty power which modern organization has devised. All things, said the apostle, wait for the entrance into organization of the power of personality: "The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God." 1

When, therefore, we admit that the chief social contribution of Jesus is the production of spiritual personality, we do not dismiss his teaching as unimportant for the modern world. On the contrary, we turn to him with fresh attention, as perhaps providing that element of social progress of which the modern world stands most in need. If it is true that in every form of social activity the cry of the time is for personality; if we are in danger of being overwhelmed by social mechanism and robbed of social power; if in the tendencies of the time

"The individual withers and the age is more and more"; if the Church of Jesus Christ itself, with its vast development of organization, is in danger of being deserted by the active and thoughtful because it

1 Rom. viii. 19.

does not seem to be the instrument of wisdom and of power, then, even if Jesus makes no important contribution to the external factors of social progress, it may be a fitting time to recall the teacher who said, "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly."

Among many evidences that the modern world is recognizing afresh the significance of personality, the most notable is the renewal of general interest in the personality of Jesus himself. Here was a person who, in the modern sense, accomplished little, was but in the slightest degree an administrator or organizer, and satisfied himself with the general statement of his mission, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." Yet through all the uncertainties of Christian theology and all the conflicts of Christian ecclesiasticism, there has disclosed itself to the world an influence proceeding from him which turns out to be that which the world most desires, the influence of a person viewing life from above, judging it from within, and directing it to its spiritual end. It is one of the most extraordinary signs of the times that, while the doctrines which centre about Christ have to great multitudes almost lost their meaning, his personality has acquired fresh loyalty and homage. People who are absorbed in the ways. of modern life feel a fresh accession of spiritual loyalty to one who, in the midst of these tangled interests, proves to be a wise and trustworthy guide. In a great orchestra, with all its varied

ways of musical expression, there is one person who performs on no instrument whatever, but in whom, none the less, the whole control of harmony and rhythm resides. Until the leader comes, the discordant sounds go their various ways; but at his sign the tuning of the instruments ceases and the symphony begins. So it is with the spiritual leadership of Jesus Christ. Among the conflicting activities of the present time his power is not that of one more activity among the rest, but that of wisdom, personality, idealism. Into the midst of the discordant efforts of men he comes as one having authority; the self-assertion of each instrument of social service is hushed as he gives his sign; and in the surrender of each life to him it finds its place in the symphony of all.

CHAPTER III

THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING THE FAMILY

There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; was bidden, and his disciples, to the marriage.

THE social problem of the family, it need hardly be said, is not comprehended by practical considerations of domestic duty. It is not a question of behavior within the domestic group, but a question of the continued existence of this form of social relation. Even thus defined, the problem of the family usually confronts one at such close range that its real dimensions and significance are not easily appreciated. Before approaching, then, the teaching of Jesus on the subject, it will be necessary to indicate briefly some aspects of the question which may seem to be remote from the immediate issues of the present age.

The problem first presents itself when we become aware that the coherence and permanence of family life are, under existing social conditions, seriously threatened. Domestic instability, it is observed, tends in a most startling manner to become an epidemic social disease. The number of divorces annually granted in the United States of America is, it appears, increasing, both at a rate unequalled in any other civilized country, and at

a constantly accelerating rate.1

In all Europe,

Canada, and Australia in 1889 the total number of divorces granted was 20,111; in the United States in this same year it was 23,472. In 1867 there were granted in the United States 9937 divorces; in 1886 there were granted 29,535. The increase of population in those twenty years was 60 per cent; the increase of divorces was 156 per cent. The total of married couples living in the United States to one couple divorced was in 1870, 664, and in 1880, 481. The ratio of marriages celebrated to one couple divorced was: in Massachusetts in 1867 forty-five to one, and in 1886 thirty-one to one; in Illinois in 1867 twenty to one, and in 1886 thirteen to one. It may even be computed that if the present ratio of increase in population and in separation be maintained, the number of separations of marriage by death would be at the end of the twentieth century less than the number of separations by divorce.

Many causes contribute to this result. Looseness in the law of divorce and in its administration, diversity of law in the different States, and an almost equal looseness in the law of marriage, -all have their part in creating a situation in which, as has been remarked, less care is observed

1 United States Commissioner of Labor, "Report on Marriage and Divorce," 1889; "Columbia College Studies," I, 1; Willcox, "The Divorce Problem; a Study in Statistics," 1891; Mayo-Smith, "Statistics and Sociology"; A. P. Lloyd, "A Treatise on the Law of Divorce," 1889.

2 Willcox (op. cit.), p. 12.