CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY 427
the reign of fraternity. It is not an end in itself ; like all other good deeds it must cause its beholders to glorify the Father in heaven. 1 Through it the attention and good will of men might be gathered, one foundation of the new social order, brotherly love, made more manifest, and thus many brought to a union with older believers whose fellowship was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 2
Third. But probably the most effective and historically about the only appreciable force that has been at work in the regeneration of society has been the church. According to one's conception of this body will one regard it as coextensive with or less in extent than the kingdom itself. 3 If one, however, takes thought only of Jesus, it becomes reasonably clear that he was little concerned with founding a religious institution. In the one of the two instances in which he speaks of the church 4 it is evident that it is a means to the maintenance of brotherliness ; and in the other instance the formula, " binding and loosing," that is, the right to teach authoritatively, was entrusted not to the church, but to that member of the kingdom upon whom the church was to be built. 5 Indeed, it almost seems as if in the mind of Jesus the church was simply the religious phase of the life of the kingdom. As the kingdom was to be fundamentally social the state is simply the new fraternity in its political aspect. In the same way the church expresses the combination of the members of the fraternity for the purpose of special philan- thropic and religious effort. So indifferent was Jesus to the church as an institution that he never spoke of its organization and left practically no directions for anything like a ceremonial. He founded not a church but a kingdom. Nevertheless, as society stands today, there can be little doubt that the chief points of contact between those who are endeavoring to incorpo-
'Matt. 5:16, cf. Luke 19:8. - i John 1:3.
3 In the former sense we understand the word to be used by KREEMANTLE, Tkt World as tht Subject of Redemption.
Matt. 18: 17.
s Matt. 16 : 18. It is by no means impossible that this text, as well as Matt. 18:17. was not contained in the earlier Logia. See WENDT, Lehrejesu, I, 155 sg.
