The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-28
MORE SOCIOLOGY ]. AND LESS THEOLOGY The Rev. Tyler's Sermon at : NOrwOOd Church DUTY OF THE CHURCH Pastor Thinks One of the Greatest Tasks Is to Socialize With
 out Secularizing Our
 Christianity
DUTY OF THE CHURCH

Christianity
 At the Norwood Methodist church yes terday morning the Rev. R. r. Tyler, the author-pastor of Norwood, preached the sixth of his series of sermons on the Human Trinity from that vital topic, specializing Our Religion or the Church and Social Life of Our People"
 MT. Tyler's sermon follows in part:
 'One of the greatest tasks of the twen- tieth century is to socialize without sec ularizing our Christianity.
 ''The progress and enlightenment that the years bring, Days speak and multi tude of years should teach wisdom (Job 32:O has brought about a new interpre- tation of Christ. At first we looked upon Christ as only God, and fell back ave- stricken into inactivity, but on re-reading and investigation today we find that He is also man, and that lets ms closer to liim as we know more about man, and if we can conclude He Is only man.
 T take it that it is real progress when We begin to emphasize the things we
 
 Human Trinity which we know a little about, is more beneficial and interesting than talking about the Divine Trinity, something we know very little about When we get through at the theological school we do not understand religion any better than when we were children, if as we'll To study the subject of the church and social life of our people, it is well to mention the systems of ethics under lying our sociological structure.
 Empirical System of Ethics
 There Is an empirical system of ethics which is based on experience and fur nshes only a series of observations and rules; and then there Is a philosophical system which develops the moral as a pure revelation of reason; then comes the theological or Christian system of ethics, commonly divided into general, individual and social ethics, which teaches morality of faith in a per sonal God and in historical Christ and looks to obedience to the revealed will of God.
 Tn the social life of today there are three well defined tendencies. There Is Protestant evangelism, which is striving after the highest moral aims as it be- lieves them to be born out of the strict est allegiance to Christian principles; then, there is a system of morality and politics which disclalms allegiance to any special religion or that there is any necessity thereof in the development of a high moral code of ethics; and then comes the hierarchy of Roman Cathoi- clsm, which as yet has yielded none of it's pretentions and asseroons of the mid dle ages
 Now ethics and dogmatics are looked upon as very different things by people today And while they are separate and distinct sciences and should be treated as such, their differences are only rela- tive. Dogmatics would examine who Christ is, while ethics wants to know what Christian on earth is like. Ethics finds In Christ example--a model dog matics sees in Him a Saviour. a Re- deemer. Dogmatics tells man to believe, to accept the truth; ethics insists that He does the truth.
 More Sociology Than Theology
 "rhere is more sociology taught in the New Testament than theology It seems that the Christian world Is just for the last few years waking up to this fact, a fact that the worldly world has claimed constant knowledge of. All our church schools are trying now to maintain a chair of sociology, and are laying stress upon a gospel once scarcely mentioned
 
 the dominant sentiment in all our great conferences and world wide conventions We are reading a new meaning out of the book. Or rather as suggested, we are stressing new texts of scripture. From the text, Where is your brother?' as the sociological key to the old Testament, down to Who is my neighbour as that of the New Testament. It is ethics, so- ciology, and not hypostaticunion or prob- 1at,,e nf nt-n h,t i,,ta And the Bible is full of 1t. From Micah's statement What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly before God as the summing up of the sociological teachings of the old Testament, down to the statement of Christ, By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples be- cause ye have love one toward another, as the sociological key to the New Testa- ment idea we find the Bible is full of it. It is the gospel of servlce-faith in-and love for man us well as that of God, so evident throughout the scriptures. that has such a grip on the thought and con science of the world. pr. D. l.. Moody, the great evangelist, in finishing a great address in the chapel of Vanderbilt uni versity said to the students that they would find much more to preach about if they spent the time studying theology in the sums trying to helpsthe unfortunate. in q later address he did not discount the work of the institutions, but he made it clear to all that more sociology and less theology would be better.
 we live in transitional age. The an- tagonism of different classes. the evident lack of confidence between man and man shows us the true face of the restless ness and the discontent of the day. It is an age of doubt and uncertainty Old beliefs are subject to recrimination if not repudiation. Old economic systems are discarded. Thinkers are distrustful of o,ir social order The laboring classes, as we'll as the capitalists. are dissatis- fed And out of all this chaos the null titudes are calling for a guide. It is the opnortunity of the church, and un-