Article June 1, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

[Universalist Leader.]

Christendom is face to face today with the problems of the practicality or the workability of the teachings of Jesus. Can his ideas be applied? Can society put his gospel into practice? Are the morality and ethics of Jesus human, earthly, or are they the "counsels of perfection," fit only for a heavenly state? This is the impending crisis of Christendom. The east is reminding the west that it is Christian only in name. A keen-minded Japanese has said that during years of travel in the United States he found only one man who seemed to him to be a Christian after the manner of Jesus. This one man was a carpenter in San Francisco. Multitudes of critics at home are urging that the teachings of Jesus are too fine and spiritual for every-day life.

In the old days the church held aloof from society. It emphasized the chasm between the church and the world. It went away by itself. It encouraged men and women to flee from society to the solitude of desert or monastery. It never undertook to incorporate humanity in its philosophy or theology. Today no such attitude is possible; or if possible, it is at the expense and discredit of the church. The philosophy of Lincoln and Jesus is knocking at the door. A kingdom divided is no kingdom. A world half sinners and half saints cannot be accepted as final. It is all or nothing. It is the kingdoms of this world against the kingdom of God. It is a magnificent challenge. It awakens great thoughts. It brings the open vision of humanity redeemed from sin. It reintroduces and reiterates the ideal of Israel, of Jesus, and of the Bible. It proclaims the true and fundamental philosophy of the gospel. It sets up that idea of redemption which includes all else in the consciousness of Jesus. It fixes our faith where it belongs,—on the salvation of the world.

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