Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/639

 THE CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT 619

The so-called liberal movement, while justly criticising evan- gelicalism in the old, crude, popular sense, has confused religion with ethical culture, and, with all its undeniable services as a cor- rective of a too often irrational orthodoxy, lives institutionally today largely by the adoption of dissatisfied products of evan- gelicalism. Morality has little power of inspiration in compari- son with religion. God is more dynamic than truth, and it is in the religious procreativeness of evangelical churches, notwith- standing the sneer of Matthew Arnold, that the solution of social problems will largely rest. What new sort of humanity the future may have in store one cannot, of course, foresee, but, with all respect for a current belief to the contrary, so long as men continue to resemble the men of the past, it is certain that a churchless society and a religionless morality mean social and moral degeneration. If the social movement has any respect for the results of experience, it will not disregard this fact. At the very least, it must count upon religious men and women as the central force of any reform or reformed social life.

VI.

And thus we arrive at a conclusion which is neither novel nor sensational : the church is not outgrown, for it furnishes its age regenerating social influences in the shape of men and women whose hearts are fraternal because they are religious. But it does more. These men and women, who serve their fellows because they love and fear their God, are not sent forth alto- gether altruistic dilettantes and untrained enthusiasts. The church is a social institution — or better, each church is a little social group, a microcosm of society itself. To belong to a church that is worthy of the name is to be trained in the art of social, not individualistic, living. A genuinely Christian church member is always material ready at hand for any rational social movement, and if a census were made of those who are effect- ively connected with social, municipal, and national reforms, it is no very rash statement that the large majority of such persons would be found to have come, either personally or through family example, under the influence of some church. It could not be