Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/817

Rh were heading for Marathon, the Hellenic tribes got together and fought together against the invader. Christianity’s warm heart will say to her cool head, when she sees that her alms and uplift must be with both left hand and right hand: “Head, you must direct this business for me, or I shall fail in meeting this need. The Master himself did not feed the multitude by Galilee as a mob. He divided the five thousand into companies, and gave each of the twelve his sections to care for. And they did all eat and were filled, no one was overlooked. And they gathered up twelve baskets of fragments, a basket for each disciple, more food than they started with. Head, this need is so great that some hungry one is sure to be underfed, and some greedy one is sure to be overfed, unless there is method.” And when Christianity talks in this strain, it will not indicate a cooling heart, but a glowing one, one that responds to the Redeemer’s desire, and

The method of permanent coöperation, like the character of the canvass, will vary with locality. But a geographical area, assigned to a church, as a permanent special parish, is the unit idea. An area rather than a lot of families, because that area will be permanently occupied with homes. They may not be the same homes; there may be more or fewer. In New York, alas! one must think there will usually be more. The assignment to a church rather than to a supervisor with varying visitors: 1. Because this permits the best permanent portraiture of each fraction of the area over which coöperation extends, each fraction being viewed by one supervising eye.

2. Because a church can thus employ its energies in any way its minister and members have the genius and grace to devise and execute. Emulation is thus conserved, coöperation is not endangered.

3. Because it involves the minimum of work, which is a Christian and not a Satanic reason.

4. Because it permits important social work to be done in addition to purely religious work, as in the church district plan of the Charity