The Church and Humanity.

I I

it leavened the lump. Then it emerged as a force which had undermined the heathenism of the Roman Empire, and had penetrated into regions beyond. A new type of brotherhood, with principles and laws of cohesion permeated by a new ideality, was established, and the world understood that the Galilean had conquered. M. Guizot reminds us that in civilisation there is "a something more" than individual interests, than political combinations, than racial developments, than social power and happiness,—there is humanity.1 It is this "something more" which the Church has not only emphasised, but, it may be said, in view of the amplitudes given to it, has created. In its preaching of Christ to the world it declared Him to be the archetypal humanity, in Whom is the life which is the light of men, and in union with Whom local and tribal distinctions are only as the differing notes. of a perfect harmony. Lacordaire was not a mere rhetorician when he declared that the first Church of Jesus Christ was humanity. The consummation for which the Church prays and strives is a redeemed and glorified humanity, the former things-sorrow, pain, sin, death-having passed away. And through the ages its testimony, not so full and clear as it should have

1 History of Civilisation in Europe, Lecture I.

been, but still audible in the midst of the struggles, the fevers, the ambitions, of social life, has always been, " Justice, righteousness, love, are the crowning features of the humanity which is in God's image, and the chief elements in the real wealth of nations."

It has been observed that "there is no one word which, from the variety of acceptations, hath bred greater difference in the Church of God than the word Church." In the pages of this book the word is employed in its least controversial sense. We are not concerned with articles of faith, with creeds and confessions, with disputes relating either to doctrine or to government. We hold with Hooker when, after referring to "schisms, factions, and such other evils whereunto the body of the Church is subject," he adds, "Sound and sick remain both of the same body, so long as both parts retain by outward profession that vital substance of truth which maketh Christian religion to differ from theirs which acknowledge not our Lord Jesus Christ the blessed Saviour of mankind, give no credit to His glorious Gospel, and have His sacraments, the seals of eternal life, in derision." It was the faith of which Jesus

2

1 Covel's Defence of Hooker, art. xi.

2 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, vol. ii. pp. 302, 303.

The Social Service of the Church. 13

Christ is "the author and perfecter" that, after its introduction, revolutionised the spirit of the societies and commonwealths into which it penetrated, and finally moulded the ethical ideals of European civilisation. And the point specially in evidence is, that this faith was propagated by means of an institution, with laws and officers and ordinances peculiar to itself, for which the authority of Christ and the guidance of the Spirit of truth Whom Christ had promised were claimed. Under the name of the Church we shall comprehend "every such politic society of men as did and doth in religion hold that truth which is proper to Christianity." Our outlook shall be, not ecclesiastical constitution and history, but the social service of the Christian collectivism. On the more spiritual work and results of the Church we shall not dwell, the purpose being to indicate the relation of Christian ethics and disciplines to the evolution and manifestation of the life of man, or, as otherwise it may be stated, to the betterment of the individual as well as of society.

1

In the elucidation of its theme, this treatise divides into two parts. In the one part, the Church is in the foreground, and the topics considered will be, its social vocation, its aggres

1 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, vol. iii. p. 253.

sive action on civic societies, the position and influence of National Churches, especially the National Church of Scotland. In the other part, the social life of Great Britain is in the foreground: its problems, burdens, moral and political trends, will be dealt with, and the reference to the Church will bear on its attitude towards the issues thus presented, and its endeavour to meet the exigencies of the situation by which it is confronted. The subject is one of great and varied interest-too vast, indeed, to be adequately considered within the limits which must be observed. All that can be anticipated or aimed at is a consideration which, though necessarily incomplete, shall be candid, honest, inspired by a sincere desire to know and express "whatsoever things" connected with it. "are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just." It cannot be affirmed that in the thought and the utterance there is no bias: let it be frankly allowed that there is, and that the bias is in the direction of Bishop Westcott's saying, "The proof of Christianity which is prepared by God, as I believe, for our times is a Christian society filled with one spirit in two forms — Righteousness and Love."1

1 The Incarnation and Common Life.

CHAPTER II.

THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF CHRIST'S TEACHING.

"ALL Human Society," writes Dean Church, "is the receptacle, nursery, and dwelling-place of ideas, shaped and limited according to the nature of the society-ideas which live and act on it and in it; which are preserved, passed on, and transmitted from one generation to another; which would be merely abstractions or individual opinions if they were not endowed with the common life which their reception in a society gives them."1 Now, with reference to the Church, the inquiry which the truth contained in these words suggests is, What are the ideas, principles, aims which have found a home in it, which have received a special determination, and, in accordance with this determination, have been made effective by its corporate action, which have been propagated from generation to generation, aglow with the life

1 Oxford House Papers, No. xvii.