¥ The Christ child in the temple at Jerusalem.
NNN
22L.
ry
ANN
born mn Bethlehem as a tiny child He could
not have been our Saviour, facing our temp-
tations and entering into our experiences.
He could not have been our example in all
things. So He loved us, and was born in
Bethlehem that we as sinners might be
saved through Him.
Then again the birth of Jesus makes
possible His second coming, when He shall
appear, not as a helpless babe, born in a
manger, clasped in His mother’s arms, sub-
ject to the counsel of His parents, at times
during His earthly life hungry, tired in
body, denied, betrayed, and forsaken by
His closest followers, crucified at the hands
of wicked men, then later laid to rest in a
borrowed tomb. He did all that for us.
To all them that look for Him the second
time He shall come in glory, without sin
unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28.) His birth
in Bethlehem and His earthly life of victory
make this second advent not only a possi-
bility but an established and glorious truth.
This coming is the only event that can
<ettle the problems of these present evil
FEBRUARY, 1942
gral Is well known that
24 the British Labor
gl Movement started in
* village nonconform-
1st churches. Earnest and
highminded men longed to im-
prove the lot of the workers,
which at that time was any-
thing but enviable. With con-
stant agitation, planning, and
fighting, that lot has improved
wonderfully in the past few
decades, until today, the Brit-
ish workingman is among the
most highly protected indi-
viduals in Britain.
But although the movement
for better social conditions was
se i inspired by, and cradled in, the
Christian religion, it is to be
feared that its deeply religious
background has been largely
lost sight of as the movement
has prospered. In the struggle
for the bread which perisheth,
the most important truth of
religion, that ‘man doth not
live by bread alone,” has been
sadly overlooked. And with
the increasing participation of
labor leaders in the govern-
ment of the country this fact
has constituted a grave peril
to the highest welfare of the nation as a
whole.
If religion supplies the driving power
for every forward movement for the up-
lifting of mankind-—and it almost invari-
ably does—it must also be the safeguard
against the corruption of such movements
in times of progress and prosperity. For-
tunately, the crisis through which Britain
1s passing is bringing home to the thought-
ful the need of getting back to the Rock
from which all true social reform has been
hewn.
Of course, there are still skeptics who
despise religion as the mainspring of such
reform. Religion, they argue, teaches faith
in a paradise to come through the direct
intervention of God, by the return of His
Son, Jesus Christ, in power and glory.
days. Leaders of society, military leaders,
statesmen, politicians, ecclesiasties all
agree that the days in which we now live
are solemn and important. From millions
of despairing and anguished hearts the
(Continued on page 18)
RELIGION AND SOCIAL
| nEFURM
By H. F. lJe'Ath, London Correspondent
Hence it acts as a dope to the people and
strangles all movements for immediate
social betterment. But evidence 1s over-
whelming that it does nothing of the sort.
What religion really does 1s to preserve
the balance between heaven and earth, so
that men shall realize that, after all, the
things of time and sense are transient, and
so must be kept in their proper place. No
amount of social improvement can alter
the basic fact that “the things which are
seen are temporal; but the things which
are not seen are eternal.” The eternal
things, therefore, must regulate the tem-
poral, not the temporal the eternal. “Seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and His
righteousness.” said Jesus, the Founder of
the Christian religion, “and all these
[temporal] things shall be added unto you.”
The place and purpose of religion in
social reform 1s aptly and clearly defined
by W. R. Forrester, in his comments on the
recent annual assembly of the British Trade
Union congress in Edinburgh, in The
British Weekly. He says: “A few of those
who have risen from the ranks are out of
touch with the sentiments of their com-
rades and inevitably reflect and represent
the opinions and interests of those among
whom they are now living. It is perhaps
here that true religion 1s most necessary
and most valuable to any labor movement
in promoting in its leaders a selfless devo-
tion to the common cause that will be proof
against the flattery of success or the corrup-
tion that infects those who possess power
over their fellows. And true religion in the
rank and file counteracts the suspicion and
jealousy that too often make courageous
leadership impossible.”
There is, we are told, a saying in Scot-
land that “there are no common people.”
And certainly wherever the Christian reli-
gion prevails, this must be true. Pride of
power and exaggerated class distinctions
must all disappear before the teaching of
Christ.
So when social movements, however
good in themselves they may be, break
away from the religion that gave them
birth, they invariably become corrupted
by pride, self-seeking, and suspicion. And
such things are foreign to the spirit of
Christ, whether they become apparent in
His professed church or in the social struc-
ture of a people.
Hence the supreme necessity of keeping
religion in the foreground of every cam-
paign against tyranny and of every move-
ment for the uplifting of the people.
Page THREE