Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 145, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1911 — The Christian and Society [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Christian and Society

HE world" is an expression which Is used In the Now Testament Scriptures in several meanings, and therefore needs to. be interpreted with the utmost care and discrimination.

Sometimes ft denotes the - whole material universe as created by God, “the Maker of heaven - and ; earth.” Sometimes it is this world in -which God has placed man for a time, the temporary scene of human existence, man’s abode, in which he sojourns for a limited period. Sometimes it conveys the idea, not a material creation, Of God’s fashioning, but of a spirit of worldliness fa God’s reasoning crea-. tures which is antagonistic to the will of God. Sometimes it is the aggregate of those possessed, by this spirit who, having been made by God,, rebel against his authority and refuse to heed his commands. Sometimes it is the equivalent of what is known to us by the name of Society, 1. e. the environment of persons- and things, in the midst of which each one lives his life here, and which, while not evil in themselves, must be used as St Paul writes in his letter to the Christians at Corinth, with caution, "not overusing it,” or “using it to the full”, as his words really mean. ' v ' ' It is with this last aspect of the word we are specially concerned., ; To the majority of persons Society is a very complex thing. In It, as in all else that has to do -with: persons and things, there is an Intricate and puzzling intermingling of good and evil which necessitate the utmost caution and discrimination in the using. It is of this social life, with all its complications, Jesus is speaking In his great intercessory prayer bn thd'nlght before he died: "I pray not that thou shouldest keep them the evil" Christ's Life a Social One. When we study the life of Christ as it is put before us in the fourfold portraiture of the Gospel, we obtain a fuller conception of what Society really means than any more words and theories can give us, and are better able to understand the relation in which the Christian man ought to stand towards it For the life of Christ was pre-eminently a social life. This is the characteristic which stands out most clearly and definitely If we compare his life with that of his forerunner, John the Baptist. Jesus himself draws the attention of his disciples to the striking contrast their lives presented to those before whose feyes they were lived. "John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he hath a devil The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." The Baptist lived the life of an, ascetic, apart from his fellows, not dwelling in the haunts of men, bufc-a recluse tn the wilderness. But the Son of Man who came to save mankind mingled with men. He lived the ordinary life of ordinary men and women, going in and out among them as one of themselves. Jesus and Society. A modern writer admirably sums up the life that Jesus lived in relation to Society. "So wide were his sympathies that Pharisaic pride complained. To this universal adaptivenets he appealed as an evidence of the prophecy fulfilling of his coming. Was he exclusive? Did ever man or woman come near him and he turn away? Did he not go among all tanks and into every society? Did he not go into the houses of great men and rulers, of Pharisees, of poor men, of publicans? Did he not frequent the temple, the market-place, the synagogue, the sea-shore, the haunts of outcasts and harlots? Was he not found at feasts and at burials? Wherever men and women were to be found, there was his place and there is ours.”--^ 1 *- ■ • Yes, each Christian has his appointed place to fill in Society. He cannot live the life of a recluse without hurt to himself. The social life rightly lived has a wholesome influence on the Christian himself. There Is nothing which does more to develop character than intercourse With others. It brings out traits which would otherwise remain undiscovered and unused. It prevents the growth of selfIshness and isolation which are so great a hindrance to. the development of the spiritual life. It draws out the healthy sympathies which are Jlke the sprouts of a tree breaking torth under the influences of the wkrfn sun or refreshing rain, or like the roots of the plant, which must have room to grow or they will become sickly and stunted ■’ _ ; •