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THE AMERICAN-SCANDIN AVIAN REVIEW 
toward the glories of the heavenly life absorbs the heart wholly it weak¬ 
ens the interest in humanity’s common world tasks, such as the organ¬ 
ization of states, the achievements of art and science, indeed all earthly 
possessions. All these are ‘the unrighteous mammon,’ difficult to 
reconcile with service in the kingdom of God, and therefore not only 
valueless but dangerous. 'Love not the world nor the things ol the 
world’—these words of Christ constitute a break with this present life. 
The more earnestly Christians attempt to carry out the programme of 
Christ, the more surely will they arrest the mighty waves of progress 
and paralyze the efforts that are incited by the hope of a richer earthly 
life.” 
Undoubtedly there is some truth in the assertion that Christ does 
not seem to attach great importance to the purely human world tasks. 
It was natural that this aspect of life must to him remain in the 
background. His mission was not first and foremost to bring men 
civilization, but to bring them the gospel of salvation and thereby lift 
them to a higher level. His aim was to produce a revolution of our 
inner life. Civilization does not still the longings of the human soul. 
Civilization leaves the innermost depths of our nature empty. It is 
the wounds of the soul with its suffering, its hope, and its longing that 
Christ has come to heal, while He teaches us to see the whole of our 
struggling human life in the light of God’s love. 
Christ lived and breathed in the world of religious thought, and 
yet he did not speak as a fanatic in whose religious enthusiasm the rest 
of the world is consumed. His soul was open to every aspect of human 
life and to the beauty of nature. Do not his speeches and parables 
give striking testimony to this fact? The sower and the harvester, the 
shepherd seeking his lost sheep, the woman hunting for her lost penny, 
the laborers standing idle in the market-place, the merchant man buy¬ 
ing pearls—wedding and funeral, children’s play and politics, the 
palaces of the living and the tombs of the dead—all these images which 
give his speech its peculiar living freshness show that he is alive to 
everything, big and little, that happens on this earth. It is as though 
he were holding out a friendly hand to help human beings to take up 
the tasks of this life with cheerfulness and hope. 
It is obvious, however, that in summing up the import of the 
Christian conception, we should not confine ourselves to Christ and 
His preaching. We must also take into account all that which in a 
later development is shown to be directly or indirectly the fruit of His 
preaching. Christ has laid the foundations of the Church, and it is 
the mission of the Christian Church to bring His gospel into touch 
with the intellectual currents of the changing times. When He de¬ 
parted from this world, Christ laid upon His congregation the com¬ 
mand: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations.” But to 
the life of a nation belong its civilization and the development of all 
