454 RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE: SOCIAL 



of the grand supports of a righteous public and private life. But 

 it must always maintain that the true religion, the supreme Chris- 

 tianity, is that life. The whole social spirit of our time reenforces 

 the Church as an association for the furtherance among men of 

 common ends, and for the meeting in public services of worship 

 of men who feel a common spiritual need. And men quickly 

 recognize and heartily sustain, as a means to an end, that of which 

 they cannot any longer concede the validity as an end in itself. 



We hear it deplored in some quarters that the present is a time 

 of the decadence of religion among us. And with the narrower 

 sense of those words there are not a few who are prepared to say 

 that it is a good thing that religion should be decadent. In so 

 far as the devotion to it led men away from that which is actual 

 and practical, in so far as it made men concerned each man only for 

 his own individual welfare, in so far as it ignored the problem of this 

 life and praised only an unearthly experience, religion may be decad- 

 ent among us. But surely with that parody of religion we have 

 little to do. In the wider sense in which we have been using the 

 word it would be more true to sa,y that we are in the midst of one 

 of the greatest revivals of religion which the world has ever seen. 

 There has never been a time when men more widely acknowledged 

 the moral and spiritual element in every phase of their lives or made 

 more earnest effort to do justice to that element. There never was 

 a time when they were more grateful for real help received from 

 those whom they recognize as their fellows in their sincere endeavors 

 or turned with more of aspiration to the God who is manifest in 

 nature, in all the life of mankind, and in the spirit of Jesus Christ. 



The kingdom of God, what is it but the reign of truth and good- 

 ness in exactly the sense in which plainest men have aways under- 

 stood those words and striven for those things, many of them not 

 daring and many others perhaps not wishing to call their work the 

 service of God when they thus strove. It is justice, mercy, and hu- 

 mility which God now, as in Micah's day, requires. It is plain trust 

 of men and love for them which Jesus would inspire. It is a better 

 state, a worthier church, a more helpful and fearless school, a more 

 equitable court, more honorable trades, a less shallow, envious, 

 and perverse social life. It is purer homes and loftier relations 

 every way. It is civilization at its best, and better than the best 

 we know. It is art, refinement, comfort. It is public virtue, 

 private character in every manifestation. These will be the king- 

 dom of God when that shall come. These are the kingdom of God 

 in so far as they are now come. And who will say that they are not 

 all abroad among us? It is for the fullness and perfection of these 

 that we pray. It is toward their fullness and perfection that we 

 would make our contribution, each one of us in the sphere in which 



