Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-03-05


parent.
All through the ages God has been
leading mankind side hy side
With a great social destiny in view. If
this be true. then my finitude is not
my limitation in the sense that l am
excluded from the divine perfection,
but Is due to the fact that | am an
organ of the divine mind. never meant
to be understood apart from my iel-
lows, or apart from God. None of
US liveth to himself and none dieth
TO himself | am an individual, plus.
vt course l am an individual. separate
and distinct from all others. myself,
of myself, with my life to
live. my choice to make. my work to
do. my responsibilities to bear. But
when / consider my dependence on
others and others dependence on mo
| find | am as link of chain,
wholly separate in myself--so much
so that i can temporarily not even
touch another-yet inseparable from
others and useless apart from others
IntcrIinlsed Lives.
So indeed it is. The fact OF inter-
linked lives is apparent Physical
welfare consider ations Illustrate it;
industrial interrelations, commercial
iiItel III SUbTt general
of interest and social
solidarity emphasize the same truth
Not least is ii true in spiritual-socia
relations. our lives interlink and in
to some We are linked to
help, to some we are linked to ne
helped, whether upholding or upheld,
more is hard to say in many cases. IN
deed so compliCate1 is mutual help
fulness that in many of our expert
ences and efforts it Is not easy to de-
termine which was greater, the help
given or received.
AS Alpine travellers we are roped
together for mutual help and safety.
The rope about me is now serving as
a means of saving ME from fall or
failure, and again as a means by
which save another from fall or
failure. This gives the background
for Christianity's keyword Service.
The Christian duty of the strong bear
ing the infirmities, and bearing with
the infirmitles of the weak is but the
lifting up by personal seizure under
Christie motive of this primary obliga-
tion of life. The heather in his
blindness recognizes and is compelled
to observe it, but Abou Ben Adhem
learned to observe it-not from the
constraint of the nature of things
but from the constraint of love. With
Paul it is the love of Christ that con-
straineth to the same result.
AS a concluding thought, let me
ask, What is the significance of all
this? That the Christian social serv-
ice emphasis roots deep in life and is
its very organization. Its background
is lfe-facts. Indeed the social serv-
ice idea is not necessarily Christian;
IL is human. Christianity lifts up,
clarifies it, transfigures It. Christ did
not destroy the general law, he filled
1t full With him man is an Indi-
vidual with his individual relationships
toward God, as son and father, but he
is an individual, plus. He is a son
among SONS, a brother with relation
ships and duties to brothers. Christ
makes definite. insistent and personal
an obligation which ali life experience
attests. There are many gifts, but in
all the same spirit.
Our Plain Duty.
If brought in contact with men and
women who as yet have no inkling of
the divine meaning of their lives it is
your privilege and mine to help them
to gain sincere, hearty, adequate self
expression. Help them to do some
thing that implies life Help them to
ptiicNe III tutiliStiNeS, W respect tueIu-
selves. Encourage, do not condemn
them, remembering that every human
soul needs encouragement. The plain
old dictum that the power of the
testimony to the world is in
q regenerated life, in the practice by
Christians of justice and brotherli-
ness which makes for redeemed So
ciety Is q toregone conclusion.
sympathetic insight of this sort is
an earnest of the true charity which
for the past two thousand years has
been enforced by the teachings of
Christianity as one of its basic prin-
ciples. Thus--realizing that the social
ideal cannot be a thing separate and
apart from the cross of Christi be-
comes the duty of the pulpit, as / see
1t, to constantly present the revOlu-
tionary teaching of Jesus concerning
the desirability and need of justice in
the relations of mankind. and more
the divine values of hui
man life, wherein the common wants
of all, mentally morally. and physicall-
ly, are reviewed in the light of Calvary.
Emerson says. Every man is q
cause, a country and an age. Let q
man, then, know his worth and keep
things under his feet. Let him not
peep or steal or skulk up or down
with the air OF charity boy, or an
In the world which exists
for him. If We love truly we shall
see truly"
Moses was cause. Washington
was a country and Jesus Christ was
the Lord of the ages. AS heirs and
joint heirs with Christ, we of today
stand in that eternal brotherhood.
Children of God, made in h,s image.
higher than the angels and but little
lower than God himself, the maker Of
heaven and earth. To recognize that
splendid vision, that vision of rela-
Is to be touched with that
divine. creative insight which discerns
all that is in man and see it whole.
Vision PreCcdes All.
That all individual achievement for
the good of humanity and the glory
of God must be preceded by vision
goes without saying. Paul was called
by vision to n world of service and
social love. and, thank God. he was
not disobedient to the vision And
we of today are working back to this
ideal. We are reaching q helping
hand to those most misguided, dis
and condemned. We are in
the presence of fresh evidence that
the life Is the test; that by the fruits
L II