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THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
oral needs but they do not leave the victims of m isfortune in the mud to find their way out as best they can. But, “If the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch," and not only so, but they stay there until help comes from outside. | It is a sad thing to say, but evidently most of the w riters and most of the teachers who are making Social Service th eir special work, discount the Bible and the Blood and know Jesus only as an example. No doubt, many of these workers have sympathetic hearts for suffering humanity, but have had no ex perience of the cleansing blood, God’s only remedy for sin; hence not having been born again, they enter upon this form of service as the •only kind they are prepared to render and th eir so- called pastors and college professors, having no light to give them, they go blundering on under the sway of sym pathy for and duty toward a suffering world. It is a question as to whether these people do not deserve more of pity than of Blame. However, the leaders surely know better, for they can give no proof nor point us to a single ex ample where their theory has resulted in the permanent solution of the problem they are attempting to solve. But listen to the following from the Rev. Charles I. Dole, President of the Twentieth Century Club of Boston, in ‘‘The Church and Social Service.” He ■ says, regarding the function of the Church: “F irst, foster, cherish, and ed ucate th e people to the great ideals of the human race; Second, set forth an ideal of the perfect commonwealth, which means the kind of state one would ultimately like to live in.” Under this head he proceeds, “Underlying the ideal ism of the world and the social relations of man to man is the thought of a rul ing life which we often call ‘God’. The modern church is coming to almost a new thought of this ruling life. In former times, God was considered a de
mon who wanted prayers and sacrifice. We think of th is as a force which is fashioning us through continuous evolu tion after H is own image and making us more sympathetic, yearning like Him self for service rath e r than sacrifice. The thought of an infinite Goodness who cares for us brings us into accord with life. . . The most wonderful thought of the ruling life of the world is th a t of the intelligent will. Our wills must be in harmony w ith this good will. As chil dren of the universe, we all are natur ally possessed of good will in varying degrees and we are at the height of our power when our good will flows out freely and floods the world in which we live.” • Again the same author says, “The church w ith its grand intent plans to promulgate ideals and to establish men’s faith in the integrity -of the universe and in the eternal life upon which our lives rest.” Or, again, hear this from the book “Social Idealism and the Changing The ology,” Dr. Smith, Professor of Theology in th e University of Ohio: “The divinity of Christ must rather be sought in the God-consciousness which dominated his life. It is only as we show this God-consciousness and thus discover God within our life, th a t we can confess our belief in the divinity of Christ in any religious sense. The salvation which we may have through Christ is located in the social power of the Christian com munity to transm it from generation to generation the God-consciousness which is possible because of the moral courage and the spiritual insight created by our acquaintance with Christ.” (This au,-' thor' gives Schleiermacher as his ideal, hence we are not surprised at his strange theology.) Again this same author says, “The history of Christianity, w ith its record of many ah original pagan custom bap tized into Christian service, inspires the desire to see the secular movements of
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