CHAPTER III.

THE SOCIAL VOCATION OF THE CHURCH.

In the previous chapter, the social aspect of Christ's teaching was indicated. More or less, such an aspect must be impressed on every system of thought which relates to human conduct; certainly, in any consideration of the words of Jesus it is impossible to overlook it. But, to recur to a point already glanced at, it is frequently urged that His ethic contemplates the righteousness of the individual rather than that of a corporate body. The assertion is not without justification. It was It was no part of His plan to interfere with existing political conditions. His kingdom was in the world, but it was not of the world. Neither did He come directly into collision with any world-realm, nor did He undertake to regulate matters connected? with property and administration or with civil issues between man and man. His purpose was

In Beeflect breached

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to create a social conscience by first purifying
and uplifting the standard of the individual con-
science. We interpret His mind when we
argue, "Make the members of a community
personally righteous, inspire them at least with
the feeling that Right is right and God is
God.' Give them a lofty type of rectitude, and
imbue them with a passion for rectitude: in
so doing, you lay the axe at the root of all
political injustice, and secure the only enduring
basis of public morality." But Christ did more
than work indirectly, through the regeneration
of personal character, towards the improvement
of communal life. He had always in His view
the formation of a society which should mirror
the divine order, the kingdom of God;

society by whose ministries and in whose mem-
bership individual souls should be nourished
and strengthened in goodness, and which, "fitly
joined together and compacted by that which
every joint supplies,"1 should propagate its ideal
in the civic societies surrounding it. Even in
the Sermon on the Mount, representing the
earlier stage of His teaching, the unity of His
disciples is the objective. Looking on them,
He said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." 2 He
pointed to the arena of their action, the earth,
1 Eph. iv. 16.
2 St Mat. v. 13.

The Constitution of Christian Society. 33

and He reminded them that they are one body called to do one thing-to salt this earth, nay, to be themselves in their unity the salt, making human life pure and wholesome through the permeation of it by the divine life which He would infuse into them. And, again, He said, "Ye are" (not merely lights to, but in their unity)" the light of the world. A city set on a hill" (and such a city, a civitas Dei, they are) "cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven."1 For, Christ knew man. Man needs more than a philosophy however true. He is swayed by the concrete, not the abstract. Plato idealised a republic. His idealisation excites only a speculative interest. His republic is in nubibus. The best object-lesson in righteousness is a society bound to the pursuit and practice of righteousness by its very constitution. This is the character of the society which He organised. Its principle of cohesion is a love which reproduces His love to men. Its vital force is His Spirit dwelling in it as the organism which holds Him the Head. Its purpose is to fill up what is lacking of His sufferings, to articulate His thought, to carry out His will to save 1 St Mat. v. 14, 16.

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men's lives, to be the evidence and the missionary of His kingdom in its two abiding features of Sonship and Brotherhood.

The Ecclesia, the Church, is not a mere association of persons having a common cult and resolving to diffuse their faith and worship. It is not made by them, and it is not dissoluble at their pleasure. It encompasses them. It adopts them into it. It presents them with a nurture and training by means of which the conscience is educated in the responsibilities of the Christian profession. It is an election out of mankind, and those who are in it are an elect race.

The term "election" is a stumbling-block to many. But that over which they stumble is not so much the thing which it denotes as the use which is made of it in theories and definitions. The principle of limitations which it implies is one that is apparent in every department of nature, in every sphere of life, in the history of the past, in the facts of the present. It is comprehended in the plan of the all-good Orderer. But whoso is wise and observant of the whole truth may understand His loving-kindness. The elect or higher forms of plant-life are serviceable, as showing the potentialities of the species, and as suggesting ways by which vitality may be more fully developed.

The Church an Election.

35

The elect or gifted minds are "lent out" for the benefit of all; the products of their genius or of their labour are the enrichment of their universe. Nations have their distinctive elections. They

are limited. They have their special aptitudes, testimonies, characteristics, by which they are circumscribed, but through which they contribute to the sum-total of the forces that act on mankind. Now, it is this law or principle which we recognise in the vocation of the Church. Holy Scripture has enforced it. In the far-away past, it represents the family of Abraham as elected. A secret of the Lord was committed to this family. Why? In order that the secret might be preserved, and that it might have, as thus preserved, an ever-widening area of influence. "Thou shalt be a blessing: . . . and in thee shall all families. of the earth be blessed." The family increased and became a people. This people, Israel, was elected. It was separated from other nations. It was distinguished above other nations. Unto it were committed the oracles of God. Why? In order that in its history and literature it might be the guardian of a lofty monotheism, of a conception of righteousness which was the germ of truth that had "waked to perish never." "The Law and the Prophets," said Athanasius, "were

1 Gen. xii. 2, 3.