THE CHURCH'S MISSION
THE answers which have appeared in our columns in the last few weeks to the question " What does the Clmrch stand for ? " have brought certain facts into clear relief. They have shown how many and serious are the differences between those who in the Churches of this country interpret the Christian religion. But more significant than the differences are the agreements between these representatives of varied schools of Churchmanship.
They set out to answer the question which the serious man outside the Church is asking : What is the distinctive task which the Church must do, whatever else may be done or left undone ? They do not consider it an unreasonable question to put ; if there were any doubt how far such matters interest those who are not within the Church, Mr. Crossman's article would give a-sufficient answer. Writing as one who is not a member of any religious organization, he remarks upon the fact that " the division between the religious and the irreligious conscience no longer corresponds to that between the church-goer and the non-church-goer " ; and it may he added that he shows himself supremely concerned that the Church shall not be secularized, or lose- its high ideal. In the present spiritual situation in this country, with which this.series chiefly dealt, there arc " those without," to whom the Church will be wise to give its serious atten- tion. . . .
There .are many ways of interpreting the first task of the Church: "So long as the Sacraments are provided for the benefit of men, and the services lor the glory of God, the Church is,doing what is its essential business.". This is one answer ; another is made by a teacher of, another school : " It is the Word by which the Church is created, and sustained, and therefore the Church's supreme business is to publish this redeeming_ Word of God," and the writer adds that the present emphasis should be upon prayer. The Church must teach men to pray. Another says that the Church must first reconvert its own. members " from social ethics to religion." • The Church will work an inner revolution, he adds " which would not leave much of the present politicalor social or economic system intact." But it is with the inner revolu- tion alone that the Church has to do. Religion can only give the motive to the reformer, it cannot produce the solution.
These answers may seem diverse. but contrasted with the contentions of those who plead for a Church which will seek to regain its lost hold upon the modern world by a mainly secular programme, they reveal an agreement far greater than any difference. The Church is first of all a spiritual society. These writers agree indeed with the judgement of the Archbishop of York in his recent Gifford Lectures, " the restoration of unity to man's experience depends mainly on securing at once the supremacy of Religion among human interests and the true spirituality of Religion both in itself and in the mode of its supre- macy." The Church which ceases to be spiritual betrays its trust.
The Church has no doubt a human side, which cannot he neglected ; but it has this side because it has first of all a divine side. It:cannot neglect, without ceasing to be a Church, the divine revelation, of which it is by its calling the witness to all mankind. = A Church which is not sure of God, and ceases to be a spiritual society, exists under false pretences. Upon this there is an evident agreement among all the writers of the articles under discussion. At the same time all of them add that the Gospel which the Church preaches carries all manner of applications. The Christian Church is not; allowed to choose, as alternatives, between pure and applied religion. Christianity has always been an applied religion. It came from the beginning " not in word-by in power." There must be a difference in human affairs when Christianity is taken seriously. It is the task of the Church, in addition to its own specific worship and witness, to send out Christian citizens into the varied realms of social and political activity, and the more there arc of such citizens, the greater will be the influence of the Church.
But how is this to he done ? How much falls to the direct service of the Christian Church ? And how much to the activities of its people in their many-sided life its -citizens ? This is partly determined by the resources available within the Church. But there another question to be answered. How far is the Church as a distinctive society qualified to do what is needed to make effective its own principles ? There is, for example, an ethical side to all economic problems, but there is also a technical element, which needs more than Christian principle to understand and to handle. The Christian Church must let its witness be given upon the ethical problem ; can it do any sort of justice to the baffling complexity of the modern economic scene ? That•-is only one illustration out of many of the limitation§ which the Church must accept. It cannot cover the whole ground of modern affairs, and should not try.- It must, therefore, seriously set itself to do its own work, and resist the invitations offered to it by eager reformers to respond to their special appeals. They naturally turn to 'so great and ancient a society for support. They say in effect : the Church ought to be Socialist, or pacifist, or whatever they specially want it to be, and if it ceased to dwell upon its doctrines, which are of secondary importance, and joined them into the field of politics, it would be justifying its calling. The Church, as all our contributors agree, would gravely miss its way if it gave up its distinctive task in order to become involved in any such movements. The more serious and farsighted reformers dd- not wish the Church, which is a spiritual society, to abandon its (urn calling. They know that where the Christian truth is fearlessly declared, there will be a ferment in the heart of Society. Things will happen, and they will happen in the-right way. Those who listen to the Gospel which is not in word.but in power will go out along a thousand different ways to give expression to it. Revolutions have been wrought in the assemblies of the faithful, and may be wrought again ; but they will be to Christian ends and will be fought with Christian weapons.
To sum up, the Church can take courage from the fact that it has still a place in the thoughts and hopes of many outside its borders. It is a salutary experience for it to be made to face its own high calling. Many without its walls instinctively feel that it will only meet their deepest needs by being true to this calling. It will fail them if it takes off its crown and becomes like other societies.
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