Increased Social Activity of the Church. 131 men who supported him, and succeeded him in the management of the Endowment Scheme, 408 parishes can be reckoned as having been added to the economy of the National Church, containing "a population of one and a half million, almost as great as that of Scotland in the beginning of the nineteenth century." In other ways, increased momentum has been given to the service of the Church. Home missions, under the guidance of wise and eloquent conveners, have developed elasticities in method, as well as extensions of building. The guardianship of schools has been transferred from the Church to the community in its civil aspect; but in her own sphere, through Sunday-schools, boys' brigades, and other organisations, she has an arm-it should be a long and a strong arm— to reach to the youth of the country. And, advancing from this, there are circles of effortguilds, fellowships, unions of many kinds — through which the Christian life acts on all the social surrounding. We cannot omit the discovery, or re-discovery, of woman as having a distinct vocation in the ministry of the Church. The deaconess and the parish sister have now their place and service. All effort, evangelistic or social, has been amplified, with a view to the comprehension in sympathetic Christian work of the shifting and manifold phases of society. What, it may be asked, is the result of all the activity? The answer to this question will be in great part determined by individual temperament, and by the position in regard to the Church that is assumed. The more sanguine in disposition will fasten on all hopeful symptoms, and argue from them that there is an advance towards better averages, and fuller measures of social good, along the whole line of society. The more keenly critical disposition will challenge some of the alleged evidences of progress, and hint that "reversion is ever dragging evolution in the mud." An ecclesiastical statistician will present elaborate tables of figures as proving that, though Churches toil, the churchless increase; that the signs of the alienation of masses from the Church have assumed alarming proportions, and menace the Christian life of the nation. Another, setting the question of church attendances aside, will point to the broader channels of sympathy among all sorts and conditions of men, to the higher aims and levels of action in even the humblest ranks, to the increasing urgency of the demand for better homes and for all that makes better lives, as proving that, though the Church as such may have less visibility, the Christianity The Ideal of Parochial Ministry. 133 of Christ has more. The truth may lie in the mean between a confident optimism and a croaking pessimism. There is enough to make us thank God and take courage. There is enough, also, to bid us "be not high-minded but fear." But, whatever may be the complexion of our thought as to the effect of the Church on the moral and social tone of the nation, the work to be done with all our might is to purify the springs of wellbeing, the home and the home-life, to make brighter and healthier zones for the individual units of mankind, and, in so doing, to develop the constituents of a virtuous and prosperous community. This is the duty, this marks the opportunity, of a National Church. Dr Chalmers opposed "a mere process of attraction" to "a process of emanation";1 and more effectual, he urged, is the latter process. That process is the ideal of the parochial ministry; its work is to radiate Christ's Gospel, in its message of reconciliation, goodwill, and love, on the locality which is the scene of its influence. In the measure in which it is faithful to this, shall it bless and be blest. 1 "People will not be drawn in such abundance to Christianity by a mere process of attraction, as Christianity can be made to radiate upon them by a process of emanation."-Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns, p. 115. |