The New York herald., 1922-05-07

variances as to what can be pre-
served and carried along into the
new synthesis that they all desire.
Religion" says DR.. Lake, Lives
through the death of religions" In
one way of looking at it, the prob
lem thus becomes, What is mere
deadwood. to be inexorably cut out?
The simplest form of answer is
that typified by the Rev. Mr.. Brew
ster's book, "The Simple Gospel"
His aim is to bring back the church.
and with it the world. to the simplic
ity and directness of the doctrine of
the Sermon on the Mount. He be-
.lieves that a real acceptance of this
is adequate and also workable as the
only basis for social reconstruction,
and he further argues that the fall
ure to attain that result is due to
the failure of professed Christians to
take that doctrine seriously and
carry it out in action to its logical
extreme.
That message contains all that
the most eager social reformer
could desire; and the latent 10y
atty to Jesus is the most potent
driving force which any social
movement can procure. No other
&c frrl
work in hand.
He also sees that the modern
church is in danger, and he repeats
the ancient call-"Repent ye, for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" and
| warns that unless the church 'tre-
pents" there is no salvation for the
world It Is noteworthy how in
sistently the millenarian note sounds
In nearly all attempts to rally the be-
levers to any revival. Sometimes il
is possibly no more than a by-prod-
uct, almost the unconscious express
sion of an age-old habit. but often II
| is an active force. Mr.. Brewster does
not stress it, but it is there.
But to most cogitators the answer
does not seem quite so simple as
that. Prof. EIlwood Of the University
| of Missouri, for example, sees the
| need of a church organized upon the
social sciences as basis, and he con-
ceives such a church as broad
enough to include not merely Roman
Catholic and Protestant. but also the
Greek Church and the Jew. Its
aims, he argues. must be the social
redemption of mankind-the creation
of Christian world" He elaborates:
This means something more
than a ministry to individuals as
individuals 1t means the trans
formation of customs and institu-
tons. 1t means the shaping of
policies and conduct of groups as
wen as of individuals The
subject Of redemption is not the
individual but the world of fndi-
viduals. The church must
undertake the work Of creating
conscience, a public conscience.
upon the behavior Of groups as
well as of individuals.
III.
DR.. Kirsopp Lake states the mod
ern position more broadly in his re-
markable little book-a small vol
ume, in a way byproduct from the
preparation of his large forthcoming
work on ''The Beginnings of Chris
tianity." but compact of most sug-
gestive thought and full of illumi-
mating observation. Rarely does one
find so much in such small compass.
He summarizes the feeling of the
younger thinkers, as he sees it:
They feel that the world in
which we live is the expression of
some great plan or purpose or pat
tern which is not yet complete,
which shows no sign of finality,
but is ever growing in complexity;
which resolves itself again and
again into simplicity. and then
spreads out again on a yet wider
scale. The plan or purpose is not
a dead mechanical thing; the life
which explains il is within il and
not without it. Men are partly