Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/297

 CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY 283

And, if we may so use the other form this saying takes, the expression of this new family character is to be expected in deeds of kindness and mercy. 1 Sometimes Jesus full of the Divine Spirit represents himself as furnishing the new life with moral impulses as the vine furnishes life to its branches. 2 Some- times his followers are conceived of as plants which his Father had planted. 3 Yet always the new phase in life is the soil out of which noble impulses are to grow. The doing of noble deeds, 4 the keeping of the commands of Jesus, 5 these are the tests of the new and divine life that comes from the impact and the infusion of divine life. From the heart thus changed will be the issues of a new life. As Paul expresses it, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control. 6 So that, although the new man is not a perfect man, he will progress towards perfection, for he is a new sort of man, a prodigal faced toward home. 7

IV.

And here, as the outgrowth of this central thought of his system we find a second element in Jesus' philosophy of social progress : the love that springs from a sense of brotherJwod. Two men, brothers in the physical sense, love each other instinctively, spontaneously. So in the case of this new fraternity, of this genetic relationship that exists between two men and God. If each is a son of God, are they not brothers ? 8 If once they realize their common nature will they not love one another ? So at any rate thought Jesus. Love between a man and his

'Luke 6: 36. 'Matt. 15:13. s John 14: 15; 15:10.

John 15: I. John 15:4. 'Gal. 5:22.

MIARRIH, >lution, p. 243.

While this would hold true in a sense, in case it be applied to the universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man, as Jesus uses the terms they gain greatly in force. As a matter of fact, does a recognition of the universal brotherhood of men prompt to special deeds of kindness in any such way as a realization of some wretch's earnest effort to grow nobler and more Godlike ? On the other hand it should be noted that the term "brother" is not coextensive with "church member" any more than the kingdom of God is coextensive with the church. To narrow Jesus to such s would l>e contrary to the entire spint <>f Ins teaching.