460 RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE: SOCIAL 



in business and in recreation, because all these are of the world and 

 worldly. 



I would not imply that every one who fails to apprehend and to 

 accept the social teachings of Jesus holds so narrow a conception 

 of the Christian religion, for many a man's common sense saves him 

 from his logic, but I maintain that this conception logically and 

 commonly follows a misapprehension of the teaching of Jesus 

 concerning the kingdom of heaven. If by that kingdom we under- 

 stand the home of the blessed dead, then the injunction to seek 

 first the kingdom of God must be understood to make the gaining 

 of heaven at last the supreme object of life. It fixes attention on 

 the other world rather than this, and lays the great emphasis on 

 individual salvation. Failure to perceive the social character of 

 Christianity leads to an individualistic interpretation of it. This 

 interpretation has been, and still is, the commonly accepted one. 

 It was this conception which the genius of Bunyan clothed with the 

 imagery of the Pilgrim's Progress, and which has heretofore been 

 accepted by all Protestant Christians as true beyond question. 



But when we perceive that by " the kingdom of God " Jesus 

 meant an ideal world, our interpretation of Christianity undergoes 

 a radical change, and becomes social. We now discover that the 

 great business of life is not to escape from the City of Destruction and 

 to gain a place of personal safety, but to save the city; and with the 

 broadening of our aim comes the broadening of our sympathies, of 

 our ideas, and of our life. 



Accepting the kingdom of God as our social ideal, we attach new 

 importance to society. We perceive its solidarity, and learn that 

 its members are members one of another, and that no one of them 

 can live unto himself or die unto himself. We rediscover a truth 

 which pagan Romans knew and which Christians ought never to 

 have lost, Unus homo, nullus homo. The brotherhood of man 

 now gains new meaning, and we perceive that love to our neighbor 

 is as real a part of the religion of Jesus as is love to God. We no 

 longer divide religion and philanthropy into two separate spheres, 

 as if love to God and love to man were two essentially different 

 things and implied two different kinds of character. Genuine love, 

 that is, disinterested love, whatever its object, is divine. " He 

 that loveth knoweth God." Cardinal Manning said to Henry 

 George, " I love men because Jesus loved them; " to which Mr. 

 George replied, " And I love Jesus because he loved men." It 

 matters little which way round the circle we move, provided only 

 we are within it; in that happy case we shall, in due time, complete 

 the circle of love which embraces both God and man. 



Accepting the teaching of Jesus that the kingdom of God is the 

 world redeemed, we see that the kingdom cannot fully come until 



