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Love not only levelled all conventional distinctions, but also bound each man to his fellows by the indissoluble bond of a common faith, common interests, and common endeavour. Men forgot their selfish ambitions in their zeal to serve the community and the larger body of Christ. Even the hostile pagan critics cried out, as they studied these brotherhoods: "Look how they love one another!" Undoubtedly there were many exceptions, but in the main the vivid picture of the early Christians which the Athenian orator Aristides held up before the eyes of the Emperor Hadrian is true to life, for it is confirmed by many passages in early Christian writings:

The Christians know and trust God, the Creator of heaven and earth in whom are all things and from whom are all things, and who has no other God beside him. From him they have received the commandments which they have engraved on their minds and keep in the hope and expectation of the world to come. Therefore they do not commit adultery nor fornication; they do not bear false witness; they do not deny what has been deposited with them, nor covet what is not theirs. They honour father and mother and show kindness to their neighbours. If they are judges, they judge uprightly. They do not worship idols made in human form, and whatever they do not wish that others should do to them, they do not to others. They do not eat of food offered to idols because they are undefiled. They placate those who oppress them and make them their friends; they do good to their enemies. Their wives are absolutely pure and their daughters modest. Their men abstain from every unlawful marriage and from all impurity in the hope of future recompense. If any of them have bondmen, bondwomen or children, they persuade them to become Christians for the love that they have toward them; and when they become so they call them without distinction, brothers. They do not worship strange gods. They walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them. They love one another. They do not refuse to help the widows. They rescue the orphan from him who does him violence. He who has gives ungrudgingly to him who has not. If they see a stranger, they take him to their dwellings and rejoice over him as over a real brother; for they do not call themselves brothers after the

flesh but after the Spirit and in God. When one of their poor passes from the world, any one of them who sees it provides for his burial according to his ability. And if they hear that any one of their number is in prison or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs. And if it is possible to redeem him, they deliver him. If any one among them is poor and needy and they do not have food to spare, they fast two or three days that they may supply him with the necessary food. They scrupulously observe the commands of their Messiah. They live honestly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning and every hour they thank and praise God for his loving kindnesses toward them; and for their food and drink they give thanks to him. If any righteous man among them passes from this world, they rejoice and give thanks to God, and they escort his body as if he were setting out on a journey from one place to another. If, on the other hand, they see that one of their number has died in his ungodliness or in his sins, they weep bitterly and sigh as over one who is about to go to punishment.

As men who know God, they ask from him what is proper for him to give and for them to receive. Thus they do throughout their entire life. And inasmuch as they acknowledge the loving kindnesses of God toward them, lo, because of them there flows forth all the beauty that is in the world! But the good deeds which they do, they do not proclaim in the ears of the multitude, but they take care that no one shall perceive them. They hide their gift as one who has found a treasure hides it. Thus they labour to become righteous as those who expect to see their Messiah and to receive from him the glorious fulfilment of the promises made to them. Truly this is a new people and there is something divine in them!

THE APPLICATION OF THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHETS AND JESUS

Christianity's Conquest of and by Rome. The pioneer period of struggle and persecution was the noblest era in the history of early Christianity. Its later conquest of imperial Rome was won at the cost of its social ideals and spiritual vigour. Even before the days of Constantine it was led, under the pressure of persecution and competition, to build up an elaborate hierarchy. When the teachings of the Nazarene were nominally accepted as the religion of the empire, this complex machinery was blended with that of the Roman state. The tragic result was that organised Christianity became "a pillar of despotism and the foe of liberty." Under these constricting conditions the democratic and social ideals of the prophets and Jesus were either explained away or quietly ignored. Throughout the world the social evils which Jesus had relentlessly combated were tolerated and perpetuated in his name.

The Effects of Christianity's Long Contest with Paganism. Many converging influences tended to check the spread of the social leaven which Jesus injected into ancient society. Transplanted from the soil of Palestine into a very different western environment, Christianity underwent great transformations. For several centuries its strongest rivals were the popular mystery cults. These cults appealed strongly to the people through their elaborate ritual and their promises of individual happiness and personal salvation in the life beyond the grave. Christianity was unconsciously but deeply influenced by these contemporary religions. In the early centuries, when competition with them was strongest, its victories were largely

won by compromise. Those Christian converts who had been reared in a strongly pagan atmosphere also naturally brought with them many of their earlier ideas. Through these channels other-worldliness and ceremonialism suddenly came to be the most prominent factors in Christianity itself. Jesus had said little about individual immortality and had established no rites nor institutions. Practically all the elaborate ritual of the later church was derived either from Jewish, Greek, Egyptian, or Roman sources. The tragic result of these new and powerful influences was that the undue emphasis on ceremonial forms and other-worldliness, which Jesus had condemned in Judaism, took the place of the social passion which he had sought to inspire in his followers.

The Trend toward Monasticism and Asceticism. The monasticism and asceticism which characterised the medieval church were also pagan rather than Christian in their origin. They were the result of a natural reaction against the despotic type of Christianity which resulted from the fusion of church and state. Deprived of individual liberty and self-expression in this world, men turned with passionate longing to the life beyond death. By fleeing from society each sought to secure for himself the certainty of eternal blessedness. This quest became the dominant aim of even the noblest souls. Its practical effects were distinctly unsocial. True, certain of the later monastic orders performed a noble social service for the communities to which they ministered, but it was simply remedial rather than constructive. They worked on the surface instead of going to the heart of the social problem. For more than twelve centuries monasticism, asceticism, and other-worldliness continued to blind men's eyes to the true meaning and practical interpretation of Jesus' social gospel.

The Theological Interpretation of Christianity. Beginning with the second century, the leadership of the Christian church passed to the early Church Fathers. They were men of Greek and Roman training and culture. Through them not only Greek philosophical ideals but also Greek methods of thought found an increasingly prominent place in Christianity. True

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to their inheritance and training, these great leaders regarded individual belief as far more important than social living. The church began to demand of its followers loyalty to a definite creed rather than loyalty to the service of their fellow men. As a result the rank and file of the medieval church were wholly unconscious of the social dynamics which the scriptures contain. In time, also, the leaders of the western church, fearing that these dynamics might prove explosive, took the Bible completely out of the hands of the common people. The result was that human civilisation for centuries almost reverted to the social and moral level of primitive barbarism.

The Protestant Reformation put the scriptures again into the hands of the people; but unfortunately it continued to fix their attention chiefly on the theological and largely ignored the social teachings of the Bible. The main emphasis was still placed on other-worldliness. Religion and practical ethics were regarded simply as the means whereby the individual might secure a title to future blessedness. There were a few striking exceptions; but a majority of the Protestant leaders failed to see that the message of historic Christianity is to the living, not to the dead, and that it must express itself in human society as well as in the soul of the individual.

Puritanism, with its splendid emphasis on personal ethics, still largely lacked the social passion. Its leaders, however, were powerfully influenced by the democratic ideals of the prophets and Jesus. Their heroic efforts to found a Christian commonwealth marked the beginnings of a new social consciousness. Until the close of the last century, however, a majority of the Protestant churches throughout the world were still under the chilling shadow of the Middle Ages. Even during the last quarter of that century a prominent Protestant theologian declared: "Christianity is not a life: it is a dogma!" Bismarck, Germany's most far-seeing statesman, in his last days revealed his utter failure to appreciate the democracy of Jesus by the strange declaration: "If I were not a Christian, I would be a republican." It is evident that organised Christianity of the last century lamentably misinterpreted the social gospel of