for the uplifting and amelioration of social conditions. And the third, to call forth all the best energy and vitality of the Church; to utilise these in their resourcefulness, not for the purpose of administering mere temporary aids, but for the permanent improvement of estate, and the permanent blessing of the life. More and more the words spoken by Norman Macleod, nearly fifty years ago, are accepted as a rule of action: "Let congregations take cognisance of the whole man and his various earthly relationships; let them seek to enrich him with all Christ gave him; let them endeavour to meet all his wants as an active, social, intellectual, sentient, as well as spiritual being, so that men shall know through the ministrations of the body, the Church, how its living Head gives them all things richly to enjoy." 1 Great and high and holy is the work thus given to the Church. The harvest is plenteous; may the labourers, drawing nearer to each other, and toiling in harmony with all who aim at the betterment of life, be inspired by the love which "abounds in knowledge and in all judgment!" A recent encyclical of the Pope concludes with the sentence, "We have heard enough of the rights of man, let us hear more of the rights 1 Memoir of Norman Macleod, D.D., vol. ii. p. 8. The Fulfilment of the Church's Mission. 357 of God." But between the rights of man and the rights of God there is no opposition; they are misconceived and misstated on the one side or on the other, when there seems to be conflict. The good of man is the glory of God. The right of man is his portion in God. Amidst all the agitations and the apparent dissonances of the society whose phases, whose problems, whose sorrows, and whose aspirations we have regarded, those who listen for the voice of wisdom, "watching daily at its gates and waiting at the posts of its doors," can hear the inextinguishable cry of the soul for God, the Everlasting Righteousness; and to reveal God to man and reconcile man to God, in righteousness, is the fulfilment of the social mission of the Church. INDEX. Abstinence from alcoholic liquor, Acts of the Apostles quoted, 58, Alexander, King of Scots, 108. Ambrose of Milan, 109 note. ferred to, 137. Aquinas, Thomas, quoted, 83- Aristotle quoted, 6-influence of Augustine, head of Roman mission Aveling, Dr, 211. Barbarians— On the frontier of Roman Em- Their respect for Christianity, The shaking of their unities, 82. Bell, Sir James, referred to and Benedict, St, and his order, 91, Bentham, Jeremy, 201. Booth, Charles, quoted, 147, 149, Booth, General, quoted, 317, 329. Bright, Right Hon. John, referred Brissot, M., referred to in 4 note. Browning, E. B., quoted, 22, 189. Babœuf, Caius Gracchus, 198 and Bryce, Right Hon. J. H. ('Holy Roman Empire'), quoted, 79 note. Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., referred Building societies in U.S.A., Aus- to, 348. Index. Calvin, John, quoted, 116, 117 and note. Carlovingian dynasty, 80. Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 286, Carnegie, Andrew, quoted, 293. Sums annually expended by so- Distribution of, indescribable, Hurtful influence of much, 168. Children and street-hawking, 210. Christian Social Union Settle- An essential factor in civilisation, The word, how understood, 12, Social vocation, 16. In what sense an election, 34- Its social influence in the fourth Its efforts among Goths and Theories as to Church and State, 359 Columba, St, and his monks, 105. (Royal on Licensing Laws), ma- Constantine the Great, 75. In distribution, 256, 257. Craik, Sir Henry, quoted, 152 note, Cranmer, Archbishop, 116. Cunningham's 'Church History of Dante quoted, 92. David, King of Scots, 107. Discipline, Second Book of, quot- Discontent, social, 266-268. 'Ecce Homo' quoted, 49 and note. Economics, relation to ethics, 9, 10. 'Edinburgh Review' quoted, 202, Egaux, Society of, 212. Eliot, George, referred to, 297, Emerson, R. W., quoted, 207. Essenism, 89, 222. Foresters' societies referred to, Free Churches in England referred Freeman, Professor, quoted, 110. Geddes, Professor Patrick, 295. Services in poorhouses, 162. Graham's, Sir James, Act, 129. Hallam, H., quoted, 80. Henry VIII., King of England, 103, 104 note, 113. 'Herald, Glasgow,' quoted, 350, 35I. Herzen, Alex., quoted, 276. 41. |