Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/191

 Rh but to secure the most effective cooperation and the largest possible results.

Obviously those who are to cooperate must be in substantial agreement as to the ends for which they are to labor and the means by which the desired ends are to be accomplished. If men of radically different faiths are to cooperate, their endeavors must be confined to the few objects on which they all agree. If on the other hand men are to cooperate for the furtherance of "whatever concerns human welfare" both of soul and body, the management must be narrowed to those who substantially agree concerning men's spiritual as well as physical needs. That is, either the scope or the management must necessarily be limited.

It is asked: Why not choose the former alternative and confine activities to the few lines of work on which all good citizens can agree? Because the object of the movement is to broaden the activities of the churches to the full measure of their mission. We are coming to see that Christianity was intended to save the whole man, "spirit, soul and body." The churches have heretofore laid emphasis on a fraction of the man. It is not worth while in their endeavors to exchange one fraction for another; we aim at uplifting the entire man. So intimate are the relations of soul and body that it is impossible to work most effectively for the one without recognizing also the needs of the other; and as men's spiritual needs are the higher, the churches must in all their activities make their spiritual work their supreme object. This ought they to have done and not to have left the other undone.

Again the churches are coming to see that Christ is not only the Saviour of the individual, but also of society. If the new civilization of the twentieth century is to be more Christian than that of the nineteenth, it will be because the principles of Christ's teaching are more faithfully and effectively applied to it; and if this application is made at all, it must be made by the churches. The great forces of civilization, such as manufactures, commerce, education and politics, are becoming more and more perfectly organized. If, therefore, religion is to retain its position among