Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

278

THE CHURCH

Kingdom of God," comes from an inadequate understanding of the great Advocate of
both. He summed up the whole matter thus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment, and the second is like unto it; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Man's relationship to God may be pure and righteous altogether, but man's
inhumanity to man makes countless thousands lose their hold both on God and man.
Too much reliance is place on the seed and not sufficient attention given to the soil.
And as we deal with the spiritual lives of the young so we treat them physically.
In Chicago, students from the University counted in a section of the stock yards
the number of babies under a year old. Then they counted an equal number in a
section along the lake front. Near the stock yards the houses were small and huddled
together; there were no yards, and the streets were dirty; fresh air and sunshine alike
were often denied the infants. Their care by ill-trained or negligent mothers was
indifferent. Along the lake there were wide streets, yards, fresh air, sunshine in the
houses, and intelligent care. It was found that seven babies died in the stock yard
region to one that died near the lake front.
Anyone who would earnestly emulate Christ, and spend his little day in bringing
about a more abundant life, must do so in laboring for both personal and social regeneration. The Master's "well done" is spoken to those whose love for him led them to
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the imprisoned, while to those who observed
it in part but neglected the weightier matters of the law he said, "These things ye should
have done and not have left the other undone."
Happily we can turn to men whose personal piety was their inspiration for an
effective, practical social religion. One always turns from viewing the life of Pastor
Wichern, the father of the Inner Mission, with renewed enthusiasm for social work.
His summons to the Church, (in i849) is still the call for a militant, serving religion.
Equally fascinating is the life of Pastor Oberlin, in the Vosges Mountains in AlsaceLoraine, a century and a half ago. Called to a half destitute, uneducated people, in
the mountains he accomplished a piece of genuine Christian social work that remains
to this day unsurpassed in character, if surpassed in volume.
This disciple of Luther, who made barren hills bloom and yield fruit, and during
the ominous days of the French Revolution remained with his people, had a real genius
for walking with God and for working with his neighbor. Whenever a religious genius
like that is harnessed to modern tasks, there is no difficulty in understanding the close
alliance between personal religion and social work.
Since so much in social regeneration depends on the complete change of human
nature, the social worker should hail with satisfaction the co-operation of the agency
or individual which stresses this needed change. "You cannot change human nature,"
is a common expression, but all the while human natures are changed. Many a modern
Paul is halted on his way to destroy, and transformed into a social and spiritual builder.
This change often is so complete that the most adverse circumstances cannot shake the
regenerated man from his high resolve. If only meager crops result from the best seed
when no attention is given to the soil, it is still more certain that a bad seed will not
bring good fruit. But we have learned to change the nature of the tree. A Luther
Burbank accomplishes marvelous results. Even an average gardener may graft a twig
and turn a worthless sapling into a blushing ox heart.