CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.

THE title of this essay assumes a relation between Christianity and Social Science; and the study of this relation is the task before us.

The first thing to be attended to is the definition of our terms. What do we mean by Christianity? what by Social Science?

I. We shall take the word Christianity in its largest sense, as signifying that form of social order whose organizing force is the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Webster defines it as "the system of doctrines and precepts taught by Christ," but this definition is too narrow. Christianity is something more than a body of doctrines and precepts. A chemist might give you, in a series of formulæ, all that his analysis could discover in the human body; but his formulæ, if they were perfectly accurate, would not be a complete description of a man. There

is much in a man of which chemistry takes no note; and there is much more in Christianity which the dogmatist and the moralist cannot

include in their systems. The intellectual and the ethical elements of Christianity are important, but the vital force, the spiritual essence, is the principal thing. Christianity gives us, in the words of Jesus Christ, a comprehensive statement of religious truth and a perfect rule of conduct; but this is a small part of what it does for us; its unspeakable gift is summed up in the saying, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

The work of Christianity is chiefly done, not by pedagogic methods, nor even by furnishing men an example to study and copy; but by the communication of a subtle personal force, from one life to another, through which the sentiments are purified and the aims are elevated. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his," no matter how strictly he may adhere to Christian beliefs, nor how scrupulously he may follow the ethical rules of the New Testament, nor how servilely he may try to copy the life of the Son of man. And, conversely,

one who has the spirit of Christ, — the central motive of whose life is in harmony with Christ,

ought to be counted as a Christian, even though his philosophy may differ somewhat from that of the Christian schools. Christianity is, therefore, broader than any sect, broader than all the sects. It is the name by

which we describe the Kingdom of God in the world.

The work of Christianity is remedial or redemptive. "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." It does not undertake to account for the moral disorder and suffering now existing; it recognizes their existence and provides a remedy for them. It finds men in ignorance and seeks to enlighten them; it finds them in bondage to tyrannous appetites and riotous passions, and offers them the freedom and the peace of virtue; it finds them poor and sick and sorrowful, and it serves their needs and cures their ills and wipes away their tears; it finds them afraid of that Power behind Nature whose laws they have transgressed, and it assures them that his name is Love, and that He is ready to forgive and save them; it finds them shivering in a dark uncertainty on the threshold of the grave, and it lifts the curtain and shows them life and immortality beyond. What form the Kingdom of God in the world would have taken if there had been neither sin nor sorrow, we may not know; but since the world is what it is, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of salvation.

II. Social Science is a term scarcely less comprehensive. It deals, according to Dr. Lankester, with "the social relations of man to man

and the duties growing out of those relations." It proposes, according to another authority, "the systematic investigation, in various lines of research, of principles and laws affecting the welfare of mankind in society." Social Science, as well as Christianity, recognizes the fact that men are in a condition of disorder and distress. Its mainspring is the desire to relieve existing evils. The lines on which its work has run have been chiefly these:

1. The study of sanitary laws with a view to the prevention of disease.

2. The study of the conditions of social vice in the interests of public morality.

3. The study of the phenomena of crime and of the methods of restraint and reformation and prevention.

4. The study of jurisprudence, in all its branches, with the hope of making the laws more simple and more just.

5. The comparison and criticism of methods of education.

6. The investigation of the causes of pauperism.

7. The examination of the whole structure of society, to discover, if possible, whether it is organized on right principles; and what hindrances, political, economical, or customary, are in the way of its welfare.

The realm of Social Science is thus seen to be a broad one, and its purpose a high one. And the close relation between Social Science and Christianity at once becomes manifest. They have a common field of operations; the lines on which they are working are parallel. Christianity takes thought for the welfare of men beyond this life, while Social Science does not; Christianity reaches out after the ignorant and degraded in other lands, while Social Science cares only for those at home; Christianity concerns itself directly and primarily with individual character, while Social Science studies men in masses. The range of the one is therefore broader than that of the other; but as far as Social Science goes, Christianity goes with it; there is no end proposed by the former which the latter is not seeking to promote.

The relation of Social Science to Christianity is, in fact, the relation of an offspring to its parent. Social Science is the child of Christianity. The national and international associations that are so diligently studying the things that make for human welfare in society are as distinctly the products of Christianity as is the American Board of Missions. It is only in Christian nations that such associations exist. Individuals, in lands not Christian, have given thought to such matters; but the existence of