136 The Lesson of History 



ideal which may be said to be more of the heart than 

 the head, and was only awaiting an appeal such as 

 Christian ethics supply to arouse it to life and action. 

 There is no doubt this ideal is gaining strength day by 

 day, and is the chief agent in the making of history 

 at the present time, and must enter more and more 

 into every measure affecting the welfare of men and 

 their relation to one another. 



In regard to what has been said on this subject of the 

 attitude of the Church, it is not uninteresting to find 

 the view upheld by Lord Hugh Cecil, one of the most 

 intellectual members of that party in the state which 

 has endeavoured to run counter to the new order of 

 things : that the Church and religion have nothing to 

 do with the welfare of mankind as a whole ; they have 

 only to do with the personal salvation of the human soul. 

 It is difficult to understand how this attitude can be 

 maintained when we consider that the Author of our 

 religion inculcated the lightening of the burden of the 

 poor, the sad, and the afflicted. His gospel, if it meant 

 anything, urged the salvation of humanity by means 

 of all measures which could be devised to remove the 

 load of misery, emphasising this as the Will of the 

 Eternal — " your Father, which is in heaven," to quote 

 the words of the New Testament ; and His thought, 

 much as it was of the poor, was not confined to this 

 class ; His love extended to all men. To the young 

 man " of many possessions " He says : " Go and sell all 

 that thou hast and give to the poor, and ye shall find 

 treasure in heaven." It is clear He did not consider 

 His gospel to mean only an individual life of righteous- 

 ness which pointed the pathway to eternal bliss. No ; 

 He meant it to include every possible effort which could 

 be made to ease the burdens of a sad and downtrodden 

 humanity. And hence the all-pervading influence of 

 the altruism of His teaching in every social ameliora- 



