Evening star., 1944-04-19

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create spiritual atmosphere in
which brotherhood can grow.
Let us take our economic order.
There are those who uphold the
theory that here certainly is no
concern of the church. But others
more realistic see that the material
and the spiritual are not so easily
I learned long ago when
I was a chaplain in France that it
is hard to pray when you are un-
bearably cold The church's inter-
est in the social order is to see that
there Is the proper environment so
that the spiritual life Of men may
have the chance to live and develop.
In our cities we know that slums,
with their bad housing. produce
crime. There are slums equally In
rural areas where poverty results in
ignorance and in evil and where the
life of the Spirit has indeed small
opportunity. The church cares for
all men irrespective of their station,
but the church should have an
especial care for those who through
circumstances beyond their control
are oppressed by surroundings which
destroy opportunity.
But for a much broader reason
the church must be concerned with
the social order. We live in a Pc
riod of complexity when great So
cial forces carry the individual along
a current which he Is unable to con-
troll. The war is the supreme, if
not the only, example of this. Mil
lions of people who had nothing to
do with the policies of nations or of
statesmen have been uprooted and
sent to far distant places by the
exigences Of the. times.
Christian Life Not Easy.
What is true of war, in lesser de-
gree is true Of business, of labor,
or Of any of the great social Or
ganisms of today. Certain individ-
uals of special gifts or of heroic pro-
portions may for a time seem to
breast the tide, but for most people
it is an impossibility. The spiritual
life practically is conditioned to a
tremendous degree by the frame
work in which it is set.
Christianity does not claim that
the Christian life is easy or ever
will be, but the church must strive
to see, unless religion is to be the
possession of the few, or unless
Christianity return to the catacombs
or the deserts, that the average man
lives in an environment in which
he has a fair chance to practice the
teaching of the Master.
The world cannot remain one
quarter Christian and three quarters
pagan; for a house divided against
itself cannot stand, as the present
tells us in suffering. Once again
this is not primarily a matter of
statements or of resolutions. 1t is
the matter of the common life of
us all within the church. Have we
such consciousness of the pres
ence of God, of the impelling sum-
mons of the Christ, that from our
churches will go industrial leaders,
economists, laborers, farmers, men
and women of every walk of life
who In the name of Christ are
champions of a more Christian So
cial order?
Let us come to the church. Here
is perhaps the most distressing fact
OF all. The church which St. Paul
stated to be the body of Christ is
a divided and broken body. Under
these circumstances how can the
church preach unity to nations and
men? The familiar answer is too
true to be lightly turned aside,
Physician, heal thyself."
World Wants Christian Leadership.
At time when the forces of evil
are so strongly entrenched, when
men and women are longing for
clear and convinced Christian lead
ershlp, there are divisions in the
very family of Christ. At a time
when the trumpet should give a
clear and certain note, there are
many trumpetS and the notes not
in harmony No words can effec-
lively describe the unhappy effect of
this upon average humanity, nom
Christian as we'll as Christian.
I realize full we'll that this is a
somewhat brutal simplification of
the situation. There is the long
history of the church which has
caused this condition. There are
fNrn LN
wounds to be healed. On the other
hand, we must not forget the real
progress which has been made in
the greater cooperation of the
churches. But what has been ac-
complished is infinitesimal to what
must be"None. I know many Of