quirements of descriptive sociology, which he called the Natural History of Society, to be knowledge of government, political and ecclesiastical; customs, usages, industrial systems, superstitions, myths, labor guilds, organizations, the agencies for distribution, communication, circulating medium; all the arts, the intellectual condition, the sciences, architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry and literature, æsthetic culture, the daily lives of the people, their food, homes and amusements, and finally the morals, theoretical and practical, laws, habits, proverbs, etc. These must all be grouped and arranged and comprehended in their ensemble and contemplated as mutually dependent parts of a great whole. The task of the sociologist, if all this were necessary, is therefore not light. We are not surprised, therefore, that no man has yet arisen who can be called the leader in sociological thought. Giddings says, that Aristotle in the Politics, that Montesquieu and the physiocrats gave objective explanation of society in terms of race, soil, climate, heredity, and historical conditions. They were followed by Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Bentham, Berkeley, Kant, and Hegel with subjective interpretations in terms of human nature, utility, ethical inspirations and ideals. And Professor Giddings reasons that a definite, coherent, theoretical sociology must unite the subjective and objective explanations.

Accordingly, the sociologist has three main quests. "First, he must try to discover the conditions that determine mere aggregation and concourse. Secondly, he must try to discover the law that governs social choices, the law, that is, of the subjective process. Thirdly, he must try to discover also the law that governs the natural selection and survival of choices, the law, that is, of the objective process." Hence Professor Giddings concludes that sociology of itself is not a science. So says Professor Bascom. Is there any science. of the infinite, or is it at the best a speculative philosophy? Sociology viewed in some aspects reminds one, therefore, of

the museum where, Washington Irving says, was combined in the highest degree those things of rarity and uselessness. Every special philosopher claims to be a sociologist, and defines sociology in terms of those forces which are the object of his own investigations. Political economy enlarged is sociology; so is the study of crime, of pauperism, intemperance. Ethnology becomes sociology.

But a living science is like the poet, nascitur, non fit. Its origin is practical,-its end is to add somewhat to the sum of human happiness. True science, like true philosophy, as Bacon showed, must be enlisted in the service of mankind. It must justify its existence by its very useful

ness.

Now, is sociology to become a living thing, justified in its existence by its usefulness and by positive service to mankind, adding to the welfare of human happiness, and an earnest seeker for truth, not as an end, but as a means to a higher end, the betterment of mankind? If society is an organism, then Christian Sociology is scientific in this, that it recognizes the necessity of perfecting the individual units, namely the individuals that make up the organic whole. This was what Plato said was all that society needed,-justice in the individual. As Paul said: "That we may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love." (Eph. iv. 15, 16.) That Christianity does perfect the individual can be proved both inductively and deductively. It puts character in the will, it moves upon that stronghold through both the emotions and the intellect. And Christian Sociology clearly defines the relations of these units in the organism, for there is no proper conception of altruism in science. The altruism. of science is natural, and not spiritual. The tiger has it, the

But that is not

Theoretical

wild geese, the Newfoundland dog, the bees. the love commended because it is born of God. sociology is like the warehouse where are a lot of machines. Its duty is to take them all and make one machine of them. But practical sociology melts up the iron before making one machine of all. Sociology must cognize all forces at work in society. Practical sociology puts its depth of thought in the concept, and not in the words that image the concept. It is free from that curse of the dialecticians,-scholastic pedantry, the menace to-day to American scholarship. It assumes that simplicity is the soul of culture. Clearness of thought is a first requisite; as Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg lives when Everett's is forgotten.

Sociology is not to be an Edward Casaubon, spending a life on some impracticable investigations which are like Jay Gould's road that begins nowhere and ends nowhere. Christian Sociology is modest. It asks questions of other departments of thought, like ethics, philosophy, exegetical theology, psychology. It builds upon the conclusions of other departments of Christian thought. It asks of moral philosophy, What is the summum bonum? It does not assume to know all things, and when all knowledge has brought its conclusions, it asks of all, Cui bono? Its end is practical,to add to the sum of human happiness. Christian Sociology recognizes sin in the world and looks for it in the home of the rich and in the hovel of the poor,-among capitalists no less than in labor organizations. Any view of the world that fails to discover sin is superficial. Sin is a matter of proportions and of relations, and not necessarily of definite acts. Christian Sociology, therefore, takes cognizance of all of the forces that play any part in shaping society. It views the material, mental, moral, and spiritual phenomena only in their social aspects. It is scientific in method, philosophic

in spirit, and zealous for wise conclusions, because it is a condition, and not a theory, that confronts us; and because

Christian Sociology aims primarily at the betterment of mankind and to add to the sum of human happiness. It brings its fruit to market, and not the machinery by the help of which the fruit was raised. The world wants results more than it wants learned disquisitions on methods; it wants sense rather than sound; wisdom of thought rather than words.

Christian Sociology learns its lessons of evolution from biology; its laws of the mind from psychology. It derives its definition of duty from ethics, and its religious teachings from biblical and exegetical theology, but is not concerned with purely speculative questions. It enters into no discussion with ethics as to the summum bonum; it will not even dispute that society is evolved, provided such a theory does not logically end in fatalism. Hence Christian Sociology is descriptive, it is statical, it is dynamic. It is inductive, scientific, philosophical. It is simple, practical. Its end is not to prove a theory, but to ameliorate the condition of mankind, and in this it is like the Divine Master, who went about doing good, for only thus can it justify its right to the respect of the thinking world and to be supported by the endowments of Christian philanthropy.

ARTICLE VI.

THE PASSING OF AGNOSTICISM.

BY THE REV. A. A. BERLE, D. d.

"BEAUTIFUL without doubt is the world, excelling, as well in its magnitude as in the arrangement of its parts, both those in the oblique circle and those about the north, and also in its spherical form. Yet it is not this, but its Artificer that we must worship. For when any of your subjects come to you, they do not neglect to pay their homage to you, their rulers and lords, from whom they will obtain whatever they need, and address themselves to the magnificence of your palace; but, if they chance to come upon the royal residence, they bestow a passing glance of admiration on its beautiful structure; but it is to you yourselves that they show honor, as being 'all in all.' You sovereigns, indeed, rear and adorn your palaces for yourselves; but the world was not created because God needed it; for God is Himself everything to Himself,-light unapproachable, a perfect world, spirit, power, reason. If, therefore, the world is an instrument in tune, and moving in well-measured time, I adore the Being who gave its harmony, and strikes its notes and sings the accordant strain, and not the instrument."

So wrote Athenagoras, the Athenian Christian and philosopher in the second century after Christ,-a splendid prefiguration of the type of thought which centuries after should produce when the marvels of the wonderful creation of God should have ceased to dazzle the mind of man for themselves alone, but also, and more, for their Creator and Governor, in fact the transition from the rule of world worship to the wor