in the spontaneity of love and in enthusiasm for humanity to promote the progress of mankind.

The necessary inference is that Christians are imperatively required, by the law of love and by Christ himself, whose life was the revelation of God's love and the realized ideal of man's love, to go into all the world and preach the gospel of Christ to every creature; and this is the primary and indispensable requisite for the progress of individuals and nations toward realizing their true well-being and for the bringing of all mankind into the unity of reciprocal trust and service in Christian love, in goodwill regulated by righteousness under the reign of Christ," that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. ii. 10, 11).

If Christianity is to be the one universal religion it must be Christianity in its essential and comprehensive characteristics, not restricted and disintegrated by the minor and sometimes petty differences of sects. These differences among believers in God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself dwindle into comparative insignificance when it is proposed to make Christianity the one religion for all mankind; and at the same time their power to hinder and the malign influence always inherent in them are revealed. How to remove this evil and to bring all the Christian forces into united action for the christianizing of the world is a problem which still awaits solution. Doubtless there will always be among Christians difference of opinion as to minor points and forms of statement of doctrines and difference of preference as to forms of worship and methods of Christian work. But it may reasonably be expected that the time. is coming when, notwithstanding these differences, Christian churches of different denominations will cease to expend a large part of their energies in jealously guarding against or even opposing one another and concentrate them on the common Christian work, and so present a united front against the powers of evil at home and abroad and work together in mutual helpfulness in extending the kingdom of Christ throughout the world.

CHAPTER XXVII

DISTRIBUTION OF DUTIES TO MEN

SERVICE to mankind must be distributed. It is primarily service to individuals in specific acts. We are to serve man by serving men. This is implied in Christ's teaching that love to man is love to one's neighbor. He does not say mankind,. but neighbor, that the love may not evaporate in sentiment by being diffused among a multitude, but may be concentred and made real in some specific service to an individual. And in saying neighbor he means one who is nigh to us with whom we come into personal contact. In the story of the good Samaritan he defines our neighbor as any one, even a stranger or an enemy, who is, however casually, within reach of our influence and whom we have ability and opportunity to serve. A person may, indeed, have good-will to all, may render service to persons with whom he never came in contact, service to humanity outreaching all specific acts to individuals. But no enthusiasm for humanity can be a substitute displacing the obligation to specific acts of service to individuals or to particular communities of individuals so far as we have ability and opportunity to render the service.

The plan of this work does not permit the definition and classification of duties to particular persons and communities, which would be necessary in a treatise on ethics. And, however precise and minute such definition and classification may be, it is impossible to give definitions and rules adequate to determine in every given case what particular service is due to a neighbor. The rabbinical and Buddhistic attempts to do this exemplify its impossibility. Instead of establishing the law in its true spirit and intent, they made it void through the tradition

of their rulings. Therefore in all questions reaching beyond explicit principles and rules of duty1 each person must determine for himself in each case as it arises what is the specific service due to a particular person or community in accordance with the spirit and specific requirements of the law; and he must determine it by considering what is, under existing circumstances, his own relation to that person or community and to others in the moral system, that is, by considering what the case really is in all its bearings. I shall confine myself to some general suggestions to aid in determining questions, continually arising in actual life, as to the right distribution of duties.

The right distribution of duties requires a correct conception of the distinction and relation of the religious and the secular life. There must be a right estimate of the claims of daily business and other interests of the secular life and of the service to man rendered therein. This distinction of the religious and the secular is often pushed so far that the two are regarded as separate and reciprocally exclusive spheres of life. Religion is cantoned off as a little Goshen, where the light of Christian love shines, while the rest of life lies in Egyptian darkness. But if we are to distribute our service to men aright we must understand that religion must renovate, inspire, pervade, and control the entire life of man, that the so-called secular life is crowded both with opportunities and with imperative duties to render service to man that itself is to be consecrated to

in loving obedience to God,

God and elevated into religion. One special need of the present time is to rectify the common error which magnifies the separation between the religious and the secular, and to show their real relation and unity; to carry religion down and out through all the secular life, and to sanctify and ennoble all its pursuits as loving service to man in manifestation and expression of love to God.

1 See Chap. XXIII., Law of Love and Rules of Duty.

2 I heard a man object to taking the usual collection at the close of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He said: "I do not like to hear the jingling of money at the Lord's table; I hear enough of that all the week." 'Another said: "I would never put money into a contribution box on the Sabbath, any more than I would buy a horse." These sayings express the feeling of many that the daily business of life is totally separate from religion, that it is not only secular but profane, that money is religiously unclean, polluting to the touch, that the giving of money even for the advancement of Christ's kingdom is not a religious act.

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The commandment of the Christian religion is, "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all for the glory of God"; its promise is, in the words of Jesus, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward"; and its warning is, in the words of Jesus, "For every idle word which a man shall speak, he shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." This religion certainly lays claim to the whole of human life as its own, requires every act of man from the least to the greatest to be a loving service of man, whether of self or of another, in loving obedience to God, and thus lifts the least and lowest of human pursuits and acts into the life eternal. Therefore every sphere of human life and action is a sphere for the Christian service of man in love to God, and the whole action of man, in every legitimate line of action, may itself be such a service.

I. CHRISTIAN SERVICE TO MAN IN SECULAR BUSINESS. A Christian is to render service to men in his daily business and work; he is to do all his industrial business and work in love to his neighbor as himself and in faith in God and in obedience to him. 1. This is evident, because the greater part of his life must be occupied with his daily business. Therefore, if his daily business gives no scope for Christian service of man, the greater part of his action in life is exempted from the law of love to man. It is often thought that the daily business is merely secular or worldly; that, so far as business is concerned, a person serves men only in that portion of his income which he gives to the needy or to beneficent institutions or associations. But this would imply that he serves men only in giving a small fraction of his income, while the bulk of his earnings and all his work in his daily business are expended in serving himself, and therefore are mere worldliness. It is also a common impression that one is rendering Christian service to man only in distinctively religious acts, as in efforts to promote some distinctively religious enterprise or moral reform, or to persuade persons to become disciples of Christ. But this would imply that man never begins to do good to men till after his day's work is done, and that all he does in the service of man is done occasionally, and in his hours of leisure. But for the immense majority of mankind, it is an absolute necessity

to be occupied much the greater part of the time in daily business or work of some kind, and on it the greater part of every one's thought, interest, and energy must be concentrated. This is necessary for the support of the person himself and of those dependent on him, as well as for preserving civilization and promoting the welfare of society. His daily business is his life-work, and in it, when his life ends, by far the greater part of all which he had achieved in life will have been done. This inevitable necessity must be taken into account in determining in any given case what service is due to an individual. For the claims of business must be continually taking precedence of benevolent service to be rendered outside the business. And if the business itself is not a sphere for Christian service to man, then the greater part of the Christian's thought, time, and energy must be expended and his principal life-work done outside his religion and his service to man; and his religion and his service of man must be outside what most occupies his time, interest, and energy, and is his principal life-work. This is a reduction to absurdity of the proposition that business cannot be in itself a Christian service of man.

2. The daily business, if it is a legitimate business rightly conducted, is itself, in its actual prosecution, a service in supplying the wants of man, which may be rendered in love to man and be as genuine and acceptable an expression of love to God as prayer, or the preaching of the gospel, or gratuitous help to the needy.

This is evident from the nature of business and its actual observed effects. It rests on the basis of supply and demand. There is no demand for things which satisfy no wants; when there are no wants to create a demand, there can be no business. All business is in its essence planning and working to supply human wants; it is doing for others what they cannot as well do for themselves. In this sense all business is a service rendered by

man to man.

If we now look at business in all its various lines, we see that all business does supply human wants, and is thus a service to men, whether those who are engaged in it do or do not intend it to be so. All men in all countries are serving one another. They are rendering indispensable service to man, who supply his physical needs; who get the raw material from the field, the forest, the mine, the quarry, and the waters; who manufacture