THE FUNCTION OF THE CHUKCH 157 



with His designs."* Gentlemen, when such a stand is 

 taken it is time to cry with Erskine, " Moderator, rax 

 me that Bible," and, beginning with Christ's words in 

 the twentv-fifth of Matthew, read afresh the will of 

 God. 



The church exists to secure for all their perfect 

 human rights. She has therefore as her fundamental 

 task the evangelizing of all persons, and as her culmin- 

 ating task the glorification of life. But an essential 

 intermediate task emerges as the consequent of the first 

 and the antecedent of the second, namely, the training of 

 men for world-service. As the three dimensions of 

 length, breadth, height, exhaust space, so these three 

 forms of service evangelism, spiritual culture, and 

 human service securing spiritual life, nurture, and 

 vocation, complete the business of the church. 



From this standpoint, then, of the church as the 

 agency of Christ in establishing the kingdom through 

 the salvation of men and the redemption of society, we 

 seek to discover the function of the church in the pre- 

 sent crisis in rural life. 



But vision as well as standpoint is needed. The 

 requisite insight can only be gained as God is seen at 

 work in the trend of the age. When the providence of 

 God was shattering the social fabric of the ancient 

 Roman world the Spirit of God led Christian men to 

 one form of service ; when the feudal system of 

 mediaeval Europe was taking form, and again when 

 that in turn was giving way to democracy, the same 

 Spirit led on, through the trend of the age, to other 

 forms of service. When men lived and labored chiefly 



* S. C. MacFarland, " Spiritual Culture and Social Service," 

 p. 50. 



