Page:Christian Marriage.djvu/160

 circumstances which affect the national life and determine the action of the State, and to declare charitably and responsibly what shall be the application of the principles of the Gospel. The Church, in fulfilling this obligation, will not act as in the past, when for a hundred sufficient reasons the whole powers of the society were delegated to its executive. The clergy can no more be accepted as identical with the Church; they must return to their true position as servants and pastors of the congregation, leaders of its worship, guardians of its discipline, charged to fulfil in it the ministry of the Word, having no lordship over it or independence of it. The mind of the Christian society must be expressed through all the organs of expression which the Holy Spirit is inspiring with utterance.

With the Gospel as the basis of fundamental principle, the moral philosopher, the social student, the physician, the physiologist must come to some agreement as to the practical demands of Christian discipleship, and