154 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



We need not therefore ask, Is the function of the 

 church primarily theological or primarily sociological ? 

 It is neither. Her function is religious. Now, reli- 

 gion is not a science, but a department of life, whereas 

 theology and sociology are sciences. And religion, as 

 life, has need of both sciences as her handmaids. 



The devotees of sociology are fain, meanwhile, to 

 inform us that theology fails even to define the church 

 as a social institution ; theologians are but too apt to 

 retort that sociology is incompetent to define the church, 

 because it has no language whereby to describe the 

 redemptional aspect of the facts for which the church 

 stands. Both criticisms have elements of truth, but 

 only as each science is defective. Were sociology a truly 

 inductive science, comprehensive in its inductions, it 

 would find the facts of redemption in human society as 

 clearly as any other series of facts ; and were theology 

 a truly progressive science it would find in the increas- 

 ing complexity of social relations, in the new problems 

 of social ethics, and in the development of the social 

 conscience, a realm of Godward relations the key to 

 which is found in the scriptural conception of the 

 church as the social institute of the kingdom of God. 



We obtain the right standpoint from which to discern 

 the function of the church when we regard it as an 

 institute — an established organization or society pledged 

 to some special purpose and work — whose object is the 

 establishment of the kingdom of God in human society. 



And we obtain the requisite insight wherewith to dis- 

 cern the function of the church when we follow the 

 course of the providence of God and the teaching of the 

 Spirit of God in the trend of the age. 



