156 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 



But we hold that the Gospel comes not only to make 

 men fit for heaven, but to make earth fit for men. By 

 means of these two forms of religious service the church 

 seeks to answer in regard to every man the two primary 

 and perennial questions of God concerning man, 

 " Where art thou ?" and " Where is thy brother ?" The 

 first of these questions is answered in personal regenera- 

 tion, the second in social redemption. The latter is as 

 essential to the kingdom as the former. We must seek 

 to bring to pass a social order which shall embody the 

 teaching of Jesus. " His teaching about the kingdom 

 of God has its application to the society we now know 

 as the Christian church, but has also its application 

 beyond the Christian church to the family, the com- 

 munity, the state, the brotherhood of humanity, and to 

 whatever forms of associated life are found among 

 men."* 



The denial of this dishonors God. There is an evident 

 parallelism between the occasion, famous in Scottish 

 ecclesiastical history, when Erskine made his plea for 

 foreign missions and was bidden by the Moderator to 

 refrain, with the words, "Young man, sit down. When 

 God wishes to save the heathen He can do it without 

 your aid or mine," and the occasion described by the 

 Secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of 

 Christ in America: " Only a little while ago I heard 

 a strange plea from a minister whose parish is situated 

 in a great democratic manufacturing community. His 

 advice was that we must refrain from trying to adjust 

 the social order. He said we must leave things to God. 

 God would take care of it, and we must not interfere 



* D. M. Ross, " The Teaching of Jesus," p. 144. 



