Another Mile, and Other Addresses

Some years ago the late Dr. A. J. Gordon of Boston delivered an address at the Northfield Conference entitled, “The Recurrence of Doctrine,” in which he described Truth as being in the form of a circle, and he then represented the circle as constantly revolving. By this figure he illustrated the idea that at one time in the history of the Church one particular doctrine was specially prominent while at another time another doctrine would be more prominently presented to view, and while all truth at all times is binding in its force and should in right proportion be presented, yet he said that there were certain great doctrines or truths, which, at the time of their prominence, should be especially declared unto the people. It has always seemed to me as if this were true, and I can recall how, at one time, many seemed to be speaking of the “Second Coming of Christ,” and it is still held as a doctrine of comfort and inspiration by a great host of people.

At another time the person and worK of the Holy Spirit was in prominence before the Christian world, and is still the secret of power and is neglected at the peril of the Christian worker or teacher. But to-day there seems to be before us the thought of service, service in behalf of those who are less fortunate than ourselves; service rendered in the spirit of Him who came, “not to be ministered unto but to minister,” and the call has gone forth in no uncertain way, summoning the ChurcH to a union of all who love in the interests of all who suffer or are in need.

This is not the day for the preaching* of a selfish salvation, and he who simply tries to keep men out of hell or to win them for heaven and stops with this has missed the truth that would make the world better, and did he but seek after presenting the Saviour to bring heaven into the lives of the people here and strive to lead all the followers of Jesus to live in the ispirit which controlled Him and to try to be like Him in every way, he would be in harmony with the truth which is to-day being emphasised.

It has been said that sometimes the mission of an age or race is recognised by those who are fulfilling it, and sometimes it is discerned when one stands at a distance, where the crowded details of life melt into a general view.

“The present age belongs, without a question, to the former class. There is not only given to it a mission, but there is added a distinct consciousness of that mission, kWe do not have to wait for the philosophical historian of some remote future to discern the characteristic problem of the present time. Behind all the extraordinary achievements of modern civilisation, its transformations of business methods, its miracles of scientific discovery, its mighty combinations of political forces, there lies at the heart of the present time a burdening sense of social mal-adjustment which creates what we call the social question.

“It is the age of the social question. Never were so many people, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, philosophers and agitators men and women, so stirred by this recognition of inequality in social opportunity, by the call to social service, by dreams of a better social world.

“There is, of course, a huge, inert mass of unobservant humanity, with no perception of this new region of hope and faith into which the present generation is entering. These persons live their lives of business or of pleasure, as Jesus, with splendid satire, said of such persons in his own age, with just enough power of observation to tell the signs of to-morrow’s weather, but without the capacity to discern the signs of their own times. No one, however, who lifts his eyes from his own private life can mistake these signs of the times. iT he literature of the present age is saturated with the idesire for social amelioration or social revolution; workmen with grimy hands and women with eager eyes are turning the pages of the economists in search of practical guidance; social panaceas are confidently offered on every hand; organization on an unprecedented scale is consolidating the fighting force of the handworking class; legislation is freely advocated which practically revolutionises the earlier conception of the function of government; and, finally, the party of revolution, with its millions of voters in European countries, officially announces that all other issues are to be subordinated to the social question, and that all other parties are to be regarded as ’ a mere reactionary mass.’ It is the age of the social question; and to pretend that social life is undisturbed, or if but superficially agitated, is simply to confess that one has been caught in an eddy of the age and does not feel the sweep of its main current.

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A generation ago Mr. Lowell touched the note of the social question of his time in his ‘Vision of Sir Launfal, Social duty seemed then fulfilled in deeds of benevolence and self-sacrificing love; and a whole generation learned to repeat his lines as the summary of social service:

“‘Not what we give, but what we share, ’
For the gift without the giver is bare.
Who giveth himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbour, and Me.’

The temper of the present age is no longer comprehended by such a statement of the social question. Instead of generosity, men ask for justice; instead of alms, they demand work. Thus the legend of the search for holiness, if written for present-day readers, must be translated from the language of charity into the language of industrial life, and the new Sir Launfal finds his Holy Grail through productive labour rather than through pitying love.

‘They who tread the path of labour, follow where Christ’s

feet have trod, They who work without complaining, do the holy will of

God. Where the weary toil together, there am I among my own, [Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with him

alone. This is the Gospel of labour — ring it, ye bells of the kirk, The Lord of Love came down from above to live with the

men who work’

“In 1849, Pastor Wichern, the founder of the Innere Mission, in Germany, addressed his Letter to the Nation, urging Christian believers to enter” into the ferment and question of the time, and give the only indisputable proof that Christianity... can accomplish what is possible to no power or wisdom without the gospel; and this proving of Christian faith by Christian works has become the special mark of modern Christianity. A hundred ways of service, visitation, and relief, the advocacy of temperance and of recreation, the provision of the social settlement and of the institutional church, illustrate the expansion of the work of religion into the sphere of the social movement. Yet these Christian activities, beautiful and fruitful as they are, and testifying as they do to the vitality of the Christian religion, cannot be regarded as presenting in themselves a solution of the modern social question. This question, as we have already seen, cuts quite beneath the whole problem of philanthropy, and cannot be summed up in terms of pity for the unfortunate or of almsgiving for the poor. It inquires for the causes of ill-fortune and demands justice for the poor. It applies itself to changing the conditions which make people poor, rather than to pitying the poverty which evil conditions have made. However legitimate and beneficent, then, the progress of Christian sympathy and charity may be, it does not satisfy the demand of the time. It is the work of a practising physician, dealing with special cases of disease, while beneath his mitigation of results lie profounder inquiries concerning the causes and prevention of disease. To meet the social question as it now presents itself, religion must be more merciful than generous: it must find a place for itself in that search for better economic conditions and better social organisation which absorb the attention of the present age.

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