Then too, the church ought to co-operate with the associated charities of the community. It will not be enough for it merely to have a member or two in the associated charity organizations, although this is better than nothing. It ought rather to be in closest touch with them, furnishing both workers and money. What is more, it should supply the proper spirit of love which will offset that professionalism which so besets men and women engaged in any form of altruism.

Again, a church ought to organize within itself committees for visiting hospitals and caring for the poor, whether they are in hospitals or in poorhouses, or in any other sort of public institution. The State can care for the bodies of the sick, but the church ought to cheer them with its own joy and do something for their spiritual well-being.

If the church undertook this work of co-operating with organized charities and county institutions, it would feel anew the world's need of Jesus and at the same time bring pressure for good to bear upon these public institutions. It would grow both evangelistic and socially influential.

But above all, the first duty of the church is to turn men from sin to God. The world needs more of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit that shall convict it of sin. A church must be keen enough to see the moral issues in our social life, and brave enough to champion justice and fraternity in all such issues.

A church that is afraid of its own doctrines is the poorest sort of institution imaginable. A church that dares not imitate its Christ is sure of its Christ's condemnation. It is not more sociology that the world asks of the church, but an earnest insistence on the gospel that shall save men from their sins and then inculcate in them a sensitiveness to the unrighteousness in social life, and a determination, no matter what it costs, to bring the moral issue straight home to its community, and especially to its members. A man is not saved according to Jesus unless he has within him the spirit of love. A church that does not dare stand for love is a body of unsaved people. And regenerated people are the only material out of which a regenerated society can be built.

1. In what ways were the prophet and the apostle alike? How did they differ? 2. In what way is the New Testament superior to the Old? 3. How did the church have its beginning? 4. What was the principle of charity of the early church? 5. What did the early church undertake with regard to politics? 6. What was the relation of the social life of the church of the New Testament to the life of the world about it? 7. In what ways should the church co-operate with associated charities? 8. What is the first duty of the church?

Questions for Further Study

1. What would probably happen to a community if all the churches were closed? 2. How did the early Christians put the principles of Jesus into operation? 3. Are there Christians outside the churches? Why? 4. How can a church extend its social influence? 5. Do you think your church is more interested in social reform than it used to be? 6. Do you believe a church interested in social service need grow less evangelistic?

CHAPTER XIX

MISSIONS

THE modern church has listened to the words of its Master, and is going into all the world preaching the gospel. When the great missionary movement of to-day began, the paramount motive was that of saving individual heathen from punishment in the hereafter. In the case of savage people, it is true, missionaries also sought to introduce the manners and customs of a higher civilization, but in general such considerations were secondary. The missionary movement, like the church of the New Testament times, did not attempt social reformation; it was to save men out from heathenism into the kingdom of heaven.

But the labor of missionaries has in a way repeated the history of Christianity in the Roman empire. It was impossible for the Christian spirit to limit itself to future salvation. The missionary was the representative, not merely of the gospel, but of a civilization that was in part the product of the gospel. Missions have inevitably become not only a great religious, but a great social movement. It would be difficult to find a more pervasive application of the principles of Christianity to human life than is to be seen in the missionary station. Only

think of what an enormous social influence has been possessed by men like John G. Paton, in Australasia; Griffith John and Timothy Richards, in China; Verbeck, in Japan; Clough, among the Telugus; and Hume in India. These are only illustrations of a great class of men and women who have found their lifework and their influence upon history immeasurably increased by taking up work in foreign lands.

The first significant change in the direction of enlarging missions was in education. The converts had to be instructed. That meant the development of a literature and schools of all grades. And literature and schools are now the chief aids of missions. We find them throughout the entire non-Christian world. Their influence cannot be overestimated, for from them the spirit of Christianity is brought in touch with that wider world of non-Christian life which will not formally yield to the gospel. It is true that the moral influence of such education is not so great as we might wish, at least in India, but it is none the less a mighty enlightening influence. Nowadays missionaries are even introducing manual training and various forms of technical instruction.

Another social influence of missions has lain in the practice of medicine. From the start, Christian missionaries were forced to care as best they could for the diseased persons they saw about them. By degrees they came to see that one of the greatest opportunities for ministration in the name of our