Article June 22, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

with contributions from J. F. Carson, R. J. Campbell, Charles E. Corwin

[Dr. J. F. Carson in Christian Work and Evangelist.]

The program of the church does not begin, nor can it end, with philanthropy. It must include that, but simply include it. To poor, tired, baffled men and women who have been drinking at the world's empty cisterns and finding no refreshment or satisfaction, the church must open up those springs of living waters that quench the thirst of the soul. Your "social question," in its last analysis, is a spiritual problem. Back of all the unrest that disturbs our day, whether that unrest is revealed in the discontent of the poor or in the feverish quests of pleasure or of wealth on the part of the rich, is the soul's cry for God, whether men know it or not. The church must answer that cry by bringing Christ and his love to the knowledge of men. The church should engage in social service, but she may not leave out of it or minimize the spiritual element that makes social service worth engaging in. While seeking to better man's outward condition, the church must remind man of the fact of sin, the need of forgiveness, the reality of the divine life.

This prophetic call to the church of today, as voiced in the spiritual content of Haggai's message, "Go up to the mountain, and bring wood," is a call to the heights where the resources of spiritual power are found. Too much do Christian folk dwell in the valley. Valley dwelling shortens perspective, enervates energy, narrows life, makes it merely human when it was intended to be divine. "Go up to the mountain." Look upon life and duty with the mountain-top perspective. [Universalist Leader.]

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