NOTES AND ABSTRACTS.
CONDUCTED BY J. D. FORREST, A. T. FREEMAN, AND H. A. MILLIS.
Social Christianity : Its Method. Christianity ought to realize itself in the form of social institutions. Private initiative is preferable to state intervention as a means to this realization. All reforms implying a remodeling of legal codes are in the domain of the state. But the state cannot reconstruct society on a new basis and put it in harmony with the gospel. Social reforms are not only powerless to elevate the soul of a people, but may even be dangerous. Institutions and laws are merely inert instruments, capable of serving a bad as well as a good purpose. They need not be perfect, but they should be adapted to use. State socialism presupposes faultless officials. But even well applied it can attain only its economic ends. It cannot banish vice because the constraint of law is its only means, and liberty is an essential condition of true morality. The right of charity in educating the ignorant, in encouraging useful work for the material and moral good of the nation, cannot be denied to the government. But alms degrade, especially state alms. The personal element must be added in charity. A change of laws modifies men, and a change in men must be followed by a change in morals. Neither absolute individualism nor state socialism, as methods, take account of all the facts. The true method of moral action is social individualism, recognizing the reciprocal relation of men and morals. L. RANDON, in Revue du Christianisme Social, November 1896. Fr.
The Principle of Social Christianity. Hitherto the church has seemed to be ignorant that man is not entirely free, that he is a creature of habits formed by society and his surroundings. Christianity has tried to found the kingdom of God on earth by converting individuals. It gains thus units, for which the world ever dis- putes, and which death finally snatches away. With each generation the work must be begun over, a labor of Sisyphus. To bring humanity to that moral height which Christ called the kingdom of heaven it is necessary to suppress the mass of evil influ- ences which press us on all sides and which almost inevitably drag us upon the downward path of sin. Christianity must declare war on prejudices and corrupt practices, must destroy the numberless iniquities at the base of our political and economic institutions, must, in short, prepare social surroundings favorable to the gospel. The church has too long held a false and mediaeval conception of life as an evil to be endured. It is of no use to sulk over the life God has prepared for us on earth. Instead of avoiding contact with material things, Christians should grasp them and bring them into subjection. It is not enough to preach to men justice and charity. Justice and charity must be brought to men to win them. The church, for its own sake and for the world's salvation, should hasten to organize social Christian- ity. French protestantism looks with suspicion upon this movement. Some fear innovations on doctrine, whereas the movement calls only for new methods of prac- tice. Others fancy that the care of souls will be neglected for the care of bodies. But Jesus showed profound solicitude for the poor and sick, and it is not new for Chris- tians to found asylums, hospitals, etc. Besides, social Christianity regards the care of bodies as a means to an end but the only efficacious means. A stronger reason for the distrust and aversion felt in France is due to the epithet "social " and a confusion of social Christianity with socialism. The two resemble each other in some external features, but not in spirit. Social Christianity does not hope to establish the kingdom of God by force, by violent attacks on the rich, by a war of classes, by contempt for the family and for religion. It appeals not to hate, but to love. Revue du Chris- tianisme Social, September 1896. F.
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