262 RELIGION 



religions may be the technical possession of priests and adepts; 

 the Christian religion recognizes the sanctity of the whole of life, and 

 sends out not alone its preaching missionaries, but its medical mis- 

 sionaries, its teaching missionaries, yes, even its mercantile mis- 

 sionaries, who shall rescue trade from trickery and teach the religion 

 of commercial life. Christian missions are called to stand among 

 the traditions and resources of an unChristianized world, and to say 

 of it what St. Paul said as he stood before the men of Athens: " I 

 perceive that ye are exceedingly devoted to religion. Whom there- 

 fore ye worship at a single altar I declare unto you as the God who 

 made the world and all things therein." 



It is not, however, within the specialized activities of religion that 

 its expansion is most clearly indicated by the signs of the time. 

 Beyond the interior discipline and technical tasks of organized 

 religion lies the great world of human life, stretching like concentric 

 circles round the sphere of religion, as though the island of faith were 

 set in a great and stormy sea. Nearest to the shore of religion lies 

 the circle of the home, with its problems of domestic integrity and 

 domestic instability; beyond stretches the circle of social classes, 

 with its diverse conditions of luxury and want; still further on the 

 horizon lie the problems of industry, the toil of the millions and the 

 wealth of the few; and beyond all extends the scene of political 

 agitation and the storms that threaten national life. What have 

 all these to do with religion, or rather, what has religion to do with all 

 these? They are the scene of the expansion of religion for which 

 the times are ready. It is not a question of outgrowing personal 

 religion. The message of life is still to the individual. It is not 

 a change of the centre, but an extension of the radius of religion. 

 Is religion applicable to those new issues of a new world; is it large 

 enough to cover the whole of life? Must it remain a personal pos- 

 session, to be hoarded and prized for its uses within the soul; or 

 may it be applied as a form of power for the redemption of the world? 

 Was the purpose of Jesus restricted to the individual, or, as he looked 

 out upon his mission, did he say, " The field is the world "? Is re- 

 ligion to remain provincial, an island of security set in an unexplored 

 sea; or, is that island life to breed brave navigators, so that not alone 

 the island but the uttermost parts of the sea shall be colonized by 

 faith? Shall we still draw a line between the secular and the sacred? 

 Is there not a religious significance in social life, a religious interpre- 

 tation of social problems? Here is this extraordinary force which 

 has already proved sufficient to convert and recreate unnumbered 

 separate souls. Must it be dissipated like escaping steam in pious 

 utterances, or may it be applied within the mechanism of the world, 

 and by its expansion give new momentum to the world's work? 

 These are the questions which confront religion as the age of organi- 



