further systematic instruction subsequent to union with the church. For that instruction let the text-books be as elaborate as you please. Let them embody all the theology which men have lived and died for throughout all the ages, if the church thinks it desirable that this should be so. Disciples eventually ought to be taught to observe all that Christ has commanded; but in preparing a book for use in making disciples of all nations let the church follow the example of the first council at Jerusalem and learn from Christ himself to insist at first only upon the most necessary things.

VII.

THE LAYMAN'S WORK FOR CHRIST.

REV. HENRY H. RANCK.

A noted preacher once said that there is an expression widely used by Christians which ought to be abolished—viz., “my work for Christ," because it indicates a wrong attitude towards our Lord, and that in its stead one should say, " Christ's work through me," after the usage of Paul and the apostles. Every Christian, of course, feels that the chief factor in his endeavor is not himself, but the grace of God which is in him; but it is distasteful to many of us to speak familiarly of the Savior's intimate relation with us, and a reticence on this subject by no means implies that we are unmindful of it. In discussing The Layman's Work for Christ," therefore, the background of all our thought is, that "it is God which worketh in us to will and to work, for his good pleasure."

It is important, first of all, to make clear what we mean by work for Christ. Various answers will undoubtedly be given to this question, according to the views held of the work Christ came into the world to do. "To save the world, to save men are words often used to indicate it, but professing Christians are not all a unit on what salvation means. I was in company, recently, with a family who are members of a sister denomination, and the conversation drifted to the fact of our belonging to different churches, whereupon the wife remarked, "We are all trying to get to the same place," and the husband said, “Yes, we are all striving to be good." I felt that the meaning of the Church of Christ and membership therein was much more than was implied in either of these remarks, and they struck me as being typical of widely held conceptions of the Christian's chief purpose. It is true we want to get to heaven; but if that is our prime object it is supremely selfish

and may have, in the minds of many, little to do with a life of integrity, rectitude and love. We desire to be good, but the striving after personal virtue may be with us, as with the hermits and ascetics of the middle ages, so all-absorbing that we may think little of helping others. These narrow and defective views of Christianity and the Church, prevailing widely among the professing followers of Jesus, leave out altogether vital elements which must come before our minds would we rightly understand the meaning of work for Christ. The neglected truth, which the world is pitifully calling on the Church to proclaim and practice to-day, is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God-not simply that the Kingdom is the future heaven of bliss beyond this vale of tears; not simply that it is that body of the baptized, the confirmed, the elect, or the converted which we call the visible Church; nor that it is simply that invisible company of chosen souls within the Church, or without, who strive after righteousness, but that it is a Kingdom which takes in the whole world of whose organized life man is the head and crown.

The burden of Jesus' preaching was the Kingdom—a word used forty-five times in Matthew, and over one hundred times. in the synoptic gospels. The Kingdom was his initial message, taken up from the lips of John the Baptist-the Kingdom, which, however narrowly and grossly conceived, was the century-long anticipation of Israel. This Kingdom, by which he undoubtedly meant an ideal world here on this earth, the reign of God in men's hearts and in all society, he explained and illustrated in many parables. To preach the good tidings of the Kingdom was that whereunto, he says explicitly, he was sent. It was that which first of all his disciples were to seek, and the backbone of the prayer which they were to use day by day. The message of the Kingdom they were to carry to the ends of the earth.

In the simple society of Jesus' day and in the short time permitted for his mission on earth, his work was needs largely with and for individuals, but in those words, spoken as never

man spake, and in that life absorbed continually in doing good, we see the seed truths which will heal the whole body of society and solve the problems of every age. In the many-sided, complicated, social, industrial, and political life of our day, there is inter-relation and mutual dependence in larger measure than ever in the world's history, and we must preach and practice a gospel, and we have a gospel which is not only for the individual, but for all relations of men to one another:-a gospel concerning the home and professional life, the education of the nation's youth, and the spreading of intelligence; a gospel for employer and employed, the conduct of industry and the manipulation of corporations; a gospel for dealing with criminals, ne'er-do-weels, and the morally and intellectually delinquent; a gospel for citizens and officials, for the conduct of government, the supervision of trade and the administration of the law; a gospel for the intercourse of nations touching friendship, commerce, and war; a gospel for the world.

Society is a vast organism impelled by life and to move harmoniously must be ruled by love, but we have as yet only a faint semblance of the universal reign of justice, mercy, and peace. There is much wrong amongst men; in the institutions through which operate the powers that be, there is much injustice appearing to-day in new and evasive forms; there is appalling discrepancy between holy and just ideals and human customs, and what is the church with its members to do about it? Is the Church here simply to save individuals out of this wicked, imperfect world, or is it here as the representative of Jesus to save the world itself from this wickedness and to transform what has defect and shortcoming into perfection? Is work for Christ simply "getting jewels out of the mudpuddle, not trying to clean up the mudpuddle,” as a minister once expressed his idea of his call?—the folly whereof is evident, from the illustration itself. Clean up the puddle and let it be transformed into the garden of the Lord.

Environment is an essential factor in the growth of character and cannot be ignored. It is made up of elements not

only physical and social but moral and spiritual as well, and they react with eternal effect upon the soul. For the great body of people a holy life is impossible in vicious surroundings, and if individual redemption were alone the object of endeavor, favorable environment would be necessary and social salvation imperative. If it be true, that the world is irretrievably depraved with no possibility of betterment, that there is no hope for the leavening of the entire lump, that individual salvation is the whole truth, then let us away to monastery and mountain, as the sensible and logical course. This, however, was not Jesus' teaching. How he lived

amongst men with a passion to help them! His prayer was, not that the disciples should be taken out of the world, but that they should be kept out of evil; therefore are Christians the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

The subject of salvation, therefore, is society and not merely individuals. The vision of St. John, the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God is to become a reality. here on this earth; and it is gradually being realized by the brooding of God's spirit over men-cities, nations, the world of interdependent human life into which shall not enter nor in which shall be, "any thing unclean, nor he that maketh an abomination and a lie." Thousands of years will pass no doubt before this comes to pass, but with the courage of our ideals and with a high faith in Him who said, "ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect," we will labor toward this end. We look upon the Church, therefore, not as an end in itself but as a means. Jesus delegated to his disciples the work which had been given Him. The Church to-day is the representative of Jesus in the world and is to carry on His work under the Spirit's guidance. Work for Christ, therefore, is work for the coming of the Kingdom. Whatever helps toward the reign of justice and truth is honored by Jesus. Righteousness, doing the will of God, is Christian, wherever and by whomsoever done. This may seem a broad view but is the unmistakable teaching of Jesus,