162 RUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 



When that question and kindred question are asked and 

 asked effectively in the name of Christ at all Boards 

 of Directors the first great step shall have been taken 

 for the solution of the citv problem. xA^nd the second 

 is like unto it in validity, urgency, and potency, 

 namely, that men should ask in the Labor Unions: 

 " What do we give our masters, eye-service or faith- 

 fulness ?" jSTot the minimum wage only but the high- 

 est wage industry can afford must be granted ; but 

 with that wage must go true-hearted service. 



Across the personnel of the membership of the direc- 

 torates and the unions alike runs the line of universal 

 cleavage among men, that which separates men of the 

 world and the servants of Christ; and through these 

 latter the church must dominate the two nuclei of life ; 

 and then shall the city — the hope and the despair of 

 democracy, the glory and the shame of civilization, — 

 be won for the Kingdom. All other hostile forces must 

 soon capitulate when these protagonists become bond- 

 servants of Christ. 



Another point remains to be considered. How far is 

 the function of the church, thus understood, institu- 

 tional ? The institutional church is substitutionary. 

 One of our Deaconesses in speaking during the "Insti- 

 tute Hour" at the Summer School at Geneva Park 

 touched the very heart of the matter with regard to all 

 institutional church work, when she said that the 

 Deaconesses had been given a beautiful descriptive 

 name, " Vicarious Mothers." Blessings on their 

 gracious, vicarious service ! But better that the real 

 mothers should also serve as mothers than that we 

 should have vicarious mothers ; better the service of 



