SOCIAL CAUSES OF UKREST 145 



Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; 



Through this dread shape, humanity betrayed, 



Plundered, profaned, and disinherited, 



Cries protest to the judges of the world, 



A protest that is also prophecy. 



O Masters, Lords and Rulers in all realms, 



Is this the handiwork ye give to God? 



This monstrous thing, distorted and soul-quenched? 



How will ye ever straighten up this shape? 



Give back the upward looking and the light; 



Rebuild in it the music and the dream, 



Touch it again with immortality, 



Make right the immemorial infamies, 



Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? 



Who, one may again ask, are the " Masters, Lords and 

 Rulers in all realms " who are responsible ? Xot only 

 those whose oppression brings about such woe, but also 

 all who might relieve that woe. Dr. Henry Sloane 

 Coffin, of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, in 

 his recent volume, " Social Aspects of the Cross," 

 writes thus of the viewpoint of Jesus : " Again, and 

 this is more surprising, Jesus numbered Himself with 

 the transgressors. There is not the slightest indica- 

 tion that He felt Himself a sinner. The keenest con- 

 science our world has known found nothing with which 

 to charge itself. There is no expression of penitence 

 and no prayer for forgiveness among the personal 

 prayers of Jesus. But this does not mean that He 

 considered Himself without responsibility for the 

 ignorance and folly and iniquity of the world in which 

 He lived. While fully aware of His uniqueness, 

 placing himself apart from and over against the rest 

 of humanity, Jesus realized His oneness wi,th men in 



all that they achieved or failed of, suffered, or enjoved. 

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