Arizona republican., 1910-07-31
NEW ROLE FOR THE CHURCH.
pr. Gladden. Proposes Radical Exten-
 sion of Religious Life.

It is safe to assert that the state or
 the Christian church in this cou ntry
 at the end of the first decade of the
 twentieth century is not all that could
 be desired, says Rev. Washington Glad den in the August Century. Without indulging in any pessimistic deplorings
 or venturing on any percentages or es- timates, 1 can content to rest this statement on the experience and obser-
 vation of intelligent men. Put this
 question to any Christian minister: 'Is
 your church today sustaining the re- lation to all classes of the community
 which you would like to have it sus-
 tain? Has it the meaure of respect
 from the high and the low. the power full and the weak, the learned and the
 ignorant, that you would like to claim
 for it? If you are pastor of good
 many years experience, do you feel
 that your church is gaining in its hold
 upon the people round about it?"
 The only way to judge of the true
 condition of the Christian church is
 to bring it into immediate contact
 with the character of Jesus Christ. It
 claims to be the body of which he is
 the head, the organism in which he
 lives and through which his life is
 manifested to the world. The pri-
 mary question is, therefore, whether it's life reprOduces his life. By as much as it does not must its strength be i'm paired and it's influence annulled
 I do not wish to understate that part of our Lords ministry in which he sought to bring men into conscious fellowship with God. That work of restoring the wayward and disobedient to the joy of sonship and the strength of virtue was never absent from His thought. We must not undervalue this. but we do need to get into its proper perspective before our minds this oth- CT phase of our Lords ministry. And there can be no doubt that His re- Iation to the poor and the friendless was the outstanding fact of that min istry.
 We are comparing the life of the church of today with the life of its Master. How does it comparc in this respect? Is it giving an equal propor- ton of its ministry to special service? Do the sick and the poor and the des- pissed in our American cities think of the churches of these cities in the same way that the same kind of people in Galilee and Decapolis used to think of Jesus Christ?
 Martin Luthcr's idea was that the care of the sick and the poor ought to be handed over to the community in stead of being provided for by the re- ligious organizations. His expectation was, of course, that the community the municipality or the state-would be so thoroughly ChristianiZed that this work could be safely instructed to it That was the idea of the New Eng land churches also. When the town and the church were one, the church had the philanthropic work in its hands: when the church was separated from the town the church relinquished to the town this part of it's function. But it was supposed that the political would be so fully Christian ized that the work would be properly done
 It is highly probable that the first Christian churches were municipal churches; that in every town or city was one church with several local con gregations. each with it's elder or lead CT, and all cooperating in the work of the city. The need of the hO1r is the restoration to every town or city of the municipal church It ought to in clude all the Christians of the munich pality; every Christian organization should be represented in it.
 Its claim to the philanthropic leadership of the community would not be disputed If it is the body of which Christ is the head, that is it's first business. In passing it over to the state the church has divested itself