158 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



as independent persons or households, the church was 

 called upon to stress faithfulness in personal relation- 

 ships. The need lay there; the way was open for 

 nothing else. But when the unit of industry and of 

 living becomes the group, when commerce takes form 

 under the chartered company and the trust, the form 

 of human need has changed, and the form of service 

 changes with it. And the form to which God is now 

 leading is Social Service, that is, that form of effort 

 for man's betterment which seeks to uplift and trans- 

 form his associated and community life. 



Of the trend of the age Professor Law finely says in 

 the excellent Guild Hand-book on Social Service: 

 " The Christianity of our age has so far developed and 

 will still further develop a social conscience, which in 

 the breadth of its view of social duty and its sensitive- 

 ness to social responsibilities, marks a fresh stage in 

 the divine education of mankind, and in the moulding 

 of human life by the leaven of the kingdom of God." 

 If that be an excellent statement of the starting-point 

 of a modern discussion of the mission of the church, 

 the next step could not be given in a finer way than in 

 the later words of Professor Law : " There is perhaps 

 no more living conviction among us than that, if we 

 wish to help men effectively, we must act on them 

 through all the complex influences of social environ- 

 ment."* 



But still another, a second insight into the church's 

 function is given us by the trend of the age. Pre- 

 ventive work is emphasized, rather than restorative. 

 The volume of the " Men and Religion Messages " deal- 

 ing with Social Service opens with this striking illustra- 



* " Social Service," edited by R. W. Mclntosh, pp. 8, 10. 



