Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-04-17
DR.. SCUDDER GIVES pointed REVIEW
OF GOSPEL And THE SOCIAL MOTIVE

God, so honestly did what he believed
to be his Fathers will as to think and
to say, Il and the Father are one.
Every word he spoke, every remark
able cure he wrought, his almost un-
beIievable works and his very
thoughts were in his opinion not his
own but Gods. The first law OF love
was all things to him. His descrip-
ton of his life was, Il and the Father
that sent me-" two intertwined per
sonaIities, his own completely subor-
dinate to Gods and merged therein.
There is no aetting away from the
conviction that to Jesus Christ love
to God as Father" is life's fundament-
al principle, the very heart Of the
Gospel Nay, this is the Gospel. If
you have this you have all the Cos
pei. Out of this the social motive
issues-Father, therefore brothers.
Hence ii follows that the enemies OF
the first law of love are the worst
possible foes OF the second law. II
you take out Of human life Gods
Fatherhood, you destroy by that act
mans brotherhood. II the social mo-
Gospel and there is no social motive,
because motives spring from basic
principles, and you have no principle
upon which to rest social motive
except "all men are brothers" and
this is not true without its underlying
reality 'all men are sons OF one Fa-
Their"
It follows, then, that the great work
Of the church, even as it was Jesus
dominating daily practise, is to get
men in love with God, to make men
sense God as their great Father
Comrade, so that He is as real to them
as their own consciousness Of self.
II the church fails in doing this II
Is false to its Master, false to society
as whole and false to the Individual
man. The first and by far the most I'M
poTtant function of the church, then,
Is evangelism. that is getting men to
live in conscious personal friendship
with God their Father. Everything in
church life should bend to this. If it
does not do this it might as we'll go
out of business, in fact it is out Of
business already as a Church OF
Christ 1t may be a social club or a
benevolent order but it is not a
church Of the living God, because
there is no God at all in its actual
outworking. II i
The great Importance. of the church
to the world Is found in this fact of
its unique duty to win men to love
God. Because there is no other insti.
tuition doing this work Of course Sal
walton Army, Y. M. C. A., Y. w. c. A,
rescue missions and the like are all
parts of the Christian church. Only
one organization on earth has this
purpose of leading men to God. Our
civilization is largely dominated by
the social or brotherly motive Every.
thing good and permanent in it, uni
versal education, equitable laws, jus.
tice between man and man, the vast
network of organized charities, the
great peacemaking forces and even
commerce itself rest upon this move
ment of mems will to love one anoth-
er. And this movement we have seen
is impossible without its basic prin.
ciple of love to our common Father.
The church, therefore, in keeping this
principle alive In human hearts, is
absolutely essential to civilization.
Hence the Importance of standing
by the church Multitudes of Chris |
tians today are lukewarm toward the
church. Many of them refuse to join |
it, more feel no conscientious impulse |
to attend its public worship and not
a few give half-heartedly or nothing |
to support it The present genera
ton has very little Puritan backbone |
when it comes to each mans person.
al relation to the church of Jesus |
Christ. This Indifference threatens
large loss to civilization which will |
certainly cost human pain, If the re- |
action does not soon come Look at |
France. 1t has required this awful |
European war to bring France to her |
knees. l read only last evening
about the mission of NJ. Jules Bots, |
the distinguished French novelist, |
dramatist and philosopher, who rep.
resents his government at the Pana. |
exposition. He said in I
landing in New York that he had |
come to America to introduce to ou
countrymen-I use his own words
this other France, so different from !
the one that most of them imagine, |
the France Of the great war, the !
France that prays! 1t is the whole
nation, everybody. the rich and poor,
high and low, united in a new reli-t
gion." 1t has taken this frightful
struggle between brothers to bring !
France to her knees before God. Is !,
L not time for our nation in our
growing carelessness toward God to
have a care?
Hence the value to society of such
preachers as Billy Sunday. They
shock men into realization of the
truth. know of no place where this
sort Of earthquake is more needed
than in Honolulu. Hence last month
IN our Inter-Church Federation, after
ong hesitation while studying Sun
days record, I voted heartily to call
him to our city. May he come with
Gabriel's trumpet; for our commu-
nifty is not likely to awake out of it's
tolerance Of vice, it's absolute callous-
ness as to the spiritual murder of