Evening star., 1915-12-11

THE EVI
hoping that the outcome of these con
ferences, of all that we say ana de
about this very important matter. ma
be to remind the church that II is pu
into this world not only to serve tns
individual soul, but to serve society
also.
And it has got to go to work OF
society i'll one sense with create
sense of exigency of the thing than II
the case of the individual, because yol
have got to save society in this Worid
not in the next. / hope that our SO
ciety is not going to exist IN the neA.
1t needs amendment in several particu
the society in the next world Will Dt
amended in those particulars-l VII
not mention them.
But we have nothing to do with so
ciety in the next world. We may nave
something to do with the indlVldua
soul in the next world by getting il
started straight for the next Worid
but we have got nothing to do with the
organization of society in the neN'
world. We have got to save society
so far as it is saved, by the ihstru'
mentality of Christianity in this world
1t is a job. therefore, that you nave go
to undertake Immediately and work
at all the time. and it is the business
of the church.
Legislation cannot save society. Leg.
islation cannot even rectify society
The law that will work is merely the
summing up in Legislative form OF the
moral judgment that the community
has already reached. Law records now
far society has got. and there have got
to be instrumentalities preceding the
law that gets society up to that point
where it will be ready to record
TRY the experiment. Enact a law that
is the moral judgment of very small
minority of the community. and it will
not work Most people will not un-
derstand it and if they do understa nd
they will resent it, and whether they
understand it and resent it or not, they
will not obey 1t.
Law a Record of Achievement.
Law is record of achievement. 1t
is not a process of regeneration. Our
wills have to be regenerated and our
purposes rectif1ed before we are in a
position to enact laws that record
those moral achievements. And that
is the business, primarily, it seems to
me of the Christian.
There are a great many arguments
about Christianity. There are a great
many things which we spiritually as
sert which we cannot prove in the
ordinary, scientific sense of the word
prove, but there are some things
which we can show. The proof of
Christianity is written in the biography
of the saints. and by the saints.
Il do not mean the technical saints
those whom the church or the world
have picked out to label saints-for
they are not very Vulnerable: but the
whose
lives. have been transformed by Chris
tianity. 1t is the only force in the
world that I have ever heard of that
does actually transform the life, and
the proof of that transformation is to
be found all over the Christian world,
and is multiplied and repeated as Chris
tianity gains fresh territory in the
heather world.
Men begin suddenly to erect great
spiritual standards over the little per-
sonal standards which they thereto
fore professed and will walk smiling
to the stake in order that their souls
may be true to themselves. There is
nothing else that does that. There
is something that is analogous to IT
and that is patriotism. Men viii go
into the fire of battle and freely give
their lives for something greater than
themselves. their duty to their coun-
try; and there is a pretty fine analogy
between patriotism and Christianity. 1t
is the devotion of the spirit to some
thing greater and nobler than itself.
Classed as Transforming Forces.
fuences. All the Transforming in
fluences in the world are unselfish.
There is not single selfish force in
the world that is not touched with sim
lister power and the church is the only
embodiment of the things that are en-
tirely unselfish. the principles of self
sacrifice and devotion. Surely this is
the instrumentality by which rural
may be transformed and
led to the things that are great: and
surely there is nothing in the rural
in which the rural church
ought not to be the leader and in which
it ought not to be the vitual actual
center.
That is the simple message that l
came to utter tonight. l dare say it
has been repeatedly said in this con-
ference. I merely wanted to add my
testimony to the validity and power of
that conception. We are in the world
to do something more than look after
ourselves.
"The reason that I am proud to be an
American is because America was
given birth to by such conceptions as
it's object in the world, its
only reason for existence as a govern
ment. was to show men the paths Of
and of mutual serviceability,
to lift the common man out of the
paths, out of the slough of discourage
ment and even despair: set his feet
upon firm ground: tell him here is the
high road upon which you are as much
entitled to walk as we are, and we
will see that there is free field and
no favor, and that as your moral quail
ties are and your physical powers, SO
will YOUR success be.
Ideals Of America.
We will not let any man make you
afraid and we will not let any man do
you an injustice. Those are the ideals
of America. We have not always lived
up to them. No community has always
by the fact that those are the things
we live for and sail by
america is great in the world not as
she is successful government, merely,
but as she is the successful embodi-
ment of a great ideal or unselfish citi-
zenship That is what makes the world
feel America draw it like a loadstone
that is the reason that the ships that
cross the sea have SO many hopeful
eyes lifted from their humber. quar-
ters toward the shores of the new
world.
That is the reason men after they
have been for a little while in America
and go back for a visit to the old
country have a new light in their faces
the light that has kindled there in the
country where they have seen some
of their objects fulfilled. That is the
light that shines from America. God
grant that 1t may always shine and
that in many a humble hearth in quiet
country churches the flames may be
by which this great light Is