may come all the
righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the
righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye
slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily I say unto you,
All these things shall come upon this generation.--Matt. 23:29-36.

Jesus saw a moral solidarity existing, not only between contemporaries who
act together, but between generations that act alike. Every generation
clings to its profitable wrongs and tries to silence those who stand for
higher righteousness. Posterity takes comfort in being fairer about the
dead issues, but is just as hot and bad about present issues. The sons
reenact the old tragedies on a new stage, and so line up with their
fathers. In looking back over the history of his nation, Jesus saw a
continuity of wrong which bound the generations together in a solidarity
of guilt.

_Does the connection consist only in similarity of action, or is there a
causal continuity of wrong in the life of a community?_

_Is there anything in our personal family history or family wealth and
business which threatens to line us up with past evils?_

Seventh Day: Social Consciousness in the Lord's Prayer

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in
heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive
us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us
not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.--Matt.
6:9-13.

_Is there anything more solitary than a human soul calling to the
invisible Presence? Is there anything more social in consciousness than
the Lord's Prayer?_

_Where in these petitions do you feel the sense of social coherence as the
unspoken presupposition of the thought?_(_1_)

_Could Jesus have thought this prayer if the unity of the race had not
been both an instinctive reality and a clear social principle with him?_

Study for the Week

That man is a social being is the fundamental fact with which all social
sciences have to deal. We may like or dislike people; we can not well be
indifferent to them if they get close to us. As Sartor Resartus puts it:
"In vain thou deniest it; thou _art_ my brother. Thy very hatred, thy very
envy, those foolish lies thou tellest of me in thy splenetic humour; what
is all this but an inverted sympathy? Were I a steam-engine, wouldst thou