Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-25
Greatest Thing
in This World
Is Man Himself
Church at Last Awake to the
Meaning of Humane
tarianism.

Hardly more than decade ago hui
manitarianhsm was term of re-
proach. says J. II. E., in the Homi-
letic Review. In theological circles,
especially, to say of creedal state
ment that it was merely humanita-
rian was to sink it one depth below
heterodoxy. To be false is bad
enough, but to be both false and fee
BILE Is to fall from condemnation to
contempt Just what other ism
should prevail in a human world it Is
hard to imagine. In world of lions
we should expect leonine philosophy
to be at the front. Yet in a world of
human beings humanitarianism has
had to wait till today to get an effec-
tive hearing in our religion and poll
tics. and the fight is still on. That
this could happen with the story OF
Jesus Christ in our hands renders the
history of mankind still more aston
ishing.
MANS inhumanity to man" has be-
come a commonplace in the world
record. Yet the Son of Man devoted
Himself so zealously to feeding, heal
ing, and caring for His fellow men
that there was not SO much as time
desert for a breath of rest, and the
, brawllng rush of our modern life OF
self-assertion, lie the vast and dreary
wastes of history whose pages are
hardly less than a book of doom.
But at last the greatest discovery
Of time has heen made. The greatest
thing In the world Is man. We are
just beginning to say, at last there is
a world-consciousness In and through
that articulate consciousness we are
hearing more and more distinctly the
mandates of the world conscience. As
we hold that God is one and Father,
the inference is that men are one
and are His children.
HE hath made of one blood all ma
tions of men to dwell on all the face
OF the earth, and hath determined the
times before appointed and the
bounds of their habitation." Two
thousand years is a long wait for that
truth to come to it's own. But at last
we can truly say, both church and
state are awake and astir and lifting
up their voice in no uncertain tones
among the nations.
The tendency of religious teaching
away from mere doctrinalism toward
practical humanitarianism, and the
tendency of political economy away
rights toward human rights, are
so blended in the thinking of the
day that we hardly distinguish their
respective characteristics. Both re-
ligion and politics are swept into
Terence's great generalization:
Nothing human is foreign to me-
The prophets of this religious-politi-
cal democracy are lifting up their
voice in every land. AS in the days
of old, these prophets of the people
are commanding the rulers of the
earth to hear the word of the Lord"
What more striking attestation than
these very lessons? The church to-
day with its thousands of clustering
institutions for the betterment of
human life, with its broad and i'm
peretive teaching of. social service,
as the dominant purpose of Chris
tianity, is plainly claiming its king
dom which is simply the kingdom of
heaven on earth.
The governments of the world are
in the grasp and movement of the
same tendency. They are command
ing that the worlds work shall be
done without such a frightful toll
of human life and suffering. The
governments of men are arriving at
something of the wisdom of ants
and bees. The workers are coming to
recognition as the important force
in the social group. Their rights must
be maintained and their welfare Sc
cured or there will be no society
to foster and advance. Justice not
charity, humanity not property, SER
vice not exploitation, are watchwords
in the courts and legislatures of the
world.