I. THE FOUNDATION. IT T is my purpose on the four following Sundays to carry a little further into detail the thoughts which have occupied us on the last two seasons of our meeting here. We saw then how the Epistle to the Hebrews met difficulties not unlike our own when they first came upon the apostolic Church, by offering new views of the Person of Christ. We saw how the fact of the Incarnation, under various aspects, satisfies and transcends the loftiest aspirations and the largest hopes of men. I wish now to ask you to consider with me how our faith in the historic Gospel, in Christ, Born, Crucified, Ascended, guides, supports, encourages us in dealing with problems of social life. I propose then to consider in succession the Christian conceptions of the Family, the Nation, the Race, the Church; but before doing this I desire this afternoon to define the foundation on which our social fabric must rest. I desire to shew how the Apostle's words are literally true for I. 1. us, true in their apparent exclusiveness, true in their real universality: other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ. I need not dwell on the importance, nay the necessity, of the inquiry which I have indicated. It is forced upon us by the currents of modern thought. On every side imperious voices trouble. the repose which our indolence would wish to keep undisturbed. We can no longer dwell apart in secure isolation. The main interests of men are once again passing through a great change. They are most surely turning from the individual to the society. And if as Christians we are too often engrossed by disputes on points which seem to be for the most part either beneath or beyond the scope of our noblest powers, others are finding expression for inarticulate cries which come from the very centre of our common life. This being so, I do not think that our real controversies in the immediate future are likely to be speculative : they threaten to be terribly practical. Behind the disputes of words, the abstract reasonings about the Being of God or the constitution of man, which occupy a large place even in popular literature, lie the fundamental questionings of social duty: What is the basis and measure of our mutual obligations? What is the source of our weakness and of our strength? What is or ought to be our aim, our ideal, as men living human lives? What, in other words, is the foundation on which a kingdom of God can be built, and how can we do our part in hastening its establishment? The answers to such questions as these are, I believe, to be found to be found only as they always have been found since the first age—in the Christian life answering to the Christian Faith. But, I repeat, they are to be found. They are not permanent and uniform. They are not ready for our use without effort. They must be sought for, shaped, realised. They must answer to our time, our education, our place in the order of the world. The knowledge out of which they will spring must be immediate, direct, personal, if it is to be vital and availing. We must go back to the very source of Divine energy for the inspiration which we need, if we are to make healthy progress and fulfil our office in the economy of God. We must not, as heirs of the past, rest complacently upon the treasures which we have received: we must by the help of our inheritance look further and deeper into the Divine mysteries than those who have gone before us, that we may in our turn add something to the wealth of our children. And if it be said that the problems which the coming generation will have to face, problems of wealth and poverty, of luxury and want, of capital I. |