rganizing countless associations in the interest of social advance. We
are still too much in the thick of the movement to estimate its results,
and we can but tentatively appraise its contributions to our Christian
thought.

(1) It has given men a new interest in religion. The intricacies of
social problems predispose men to value an invisible Ally, and such
prepossession is, as Herbert Spencer said, "nine-points of belief." The
social character of the Christian religion, with its Father-God and its
ideals of the Kingdom, gives it a peculiar charm to those whose hearts
have been touched with a passion for social righteousness. A recent
historian of the thought of the last century, after reviewing its
scientific and philosophic tendencies, makes the remark that "an
increasing number of thinkers of our age expect the next step in the
solution of the great problems of life to be taken by practical
religion."

(2) It has made us realize that religion is essentially social. Men's
souls are born of the social religious consciousness; are nourished by
contact with the society of believers, in fellowship with whom they grow
"a larger soul," and find their destiny in a social religious
purpose--the Kingdom of God.

(3) It has taught us that religious susceptibility is intimately
connected with social status. Spiritual movements have always found some
relatively unimpressionable classes. In primitive Christian times "not
many well-educated, not many influential, not many nobly born were
called"; and in our own age the two least responsive strata in society
are the topmost and the bottom-most--those so well off that they often
feel no pressure of social obligation, and those without the sense of
social responsibility because they have nothing. It is the interest of
spiritual religion to do away with both these strata, placing social
burdens on the former and imposing social privileges on the latter, for
responsibility proves to be the chief sacrament of religion.

(4) It has brought the Church to a new place of prominence in Christian
thought. Men realize their indebtedness for their own spiritual life to
the collective religious experience of the past, represented in the
Church; their need of its fellowship for their growth in faith and
usefulness; and the necessity of organized religious effort, if society
is to be leavened with the Spirit of Christ. Church membership becomes a
duty for every socially minded Christian. And t