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The Social Gospel By the Rev. Prof. D. Miall Edwards, M.A. MORE than once in recent numbers of the H clsli Outlook the Editor has commented most favourably on the Christian W itness Questionnaire of the Welsh School oi Social Service, and has emphasised its importance in view of the Conierence on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship to be held in Birming- ham in April, 1924. 1 venture to call the earnest attention of your readers to this matter, and to inxite all social workers and Christian Hunkers in U ales to give it their serious thought during the coming winter months. In the first place, something must be said about the purpose and scope of the 1924 Conference. 1 lie basis of the Conference is the conviction that the Christian faith, rightly interpreted and consistently followed, gives the vision and the power essential for solving the problems of to- day, that the social ethics of Christianity have been greatly neglected by Christian people in their corporate capacity, and that it is of the first im- portance that these should be given a clearer and more persistent emphasis." the programme of the Conference will embrace almost every con- ceivable aspect of the social problem, viewed definitely from the Christian standpoint. Already questionnaires for study groups have been issued on the following subjects :-The Nature of God and His purpose for the World, Property and Industry, Education, The Home, Leisure,, The Social Function of the Church, The Treatment of Crime, The Social Gospel, International Relations, The Relation of the Sexes others to follow will deal with Christianity and War. Race, Politics, etc. This will give some idea as to the wide and comprehensive scope of the field of inquiry which the promoters of the Conference have set not only before themselves, but before the whole Christian Church in our land, and on which the Conference is expected to give a considered pronouncement. What is aimed at is not a sectional or fragmentary view of some aspects of the social problem viewed in isolation from the whole, but a reasoned state- ment of the Christian view of life in all its aspects, so far as it is organized in social life and insti- tutions. This is something new, and it were well for us to seek to realise its significance. It has never been seriously attempted before. The Church has so far been too content with tackling social problems in isolation. It has chiefly concentrated its energies on specific evils and 'sectional reforms -the drink problem, for instance. Of course we recognise the immense service that has been ren- All information may be obtained from the Secre- tary Rev. C. E. Raven, B.D., and Miss Lucy Gardner, 92, St. George's Square, London, S.W.I. dered to the Kingdom of God in this way. Up to a point concentration is conducive to efficiency. But beyond that point it may result in giving us lalse perspectives and narrow visions, and may lead to tinkering reforms and patchwork remedies. So lar the Church has not attempted the colossal task of working out the Christian system of society in all its aspects, starting from fundamental Christian principles, and applying those princi- ples courageously to the whole scheme of life Individual Christian thinkers here and there have sought to think out a comprehensive social system from the Christian standpoint and to work out th social implications of the gospel. But the Con- ierence ol 1924 will aim at giving the results not merely of inquiries carried on here and there by individual minds, but of the corporate thinking ol a \ery large number of Christians, so that its hndings may so far as possible have behind them the lull weight of the whole Church in our land It will try to gather to a focus the general Christian consciousness in relation to the organ- ization of human life in all its ranges. This, 1 repeat, has never been done before In the course of its history the Church has had its ecumenical councils to formulate what was hen to be the true mind of the Church universal on fundamental points of doctrine. But the bearing ol those doctrines on the whole scheme ol he was not worked out or even touched upon by tho^e councils. The Conference of 1924 will not be an Ecumenical Council (though it will pre- pare the way for a World Conference to be held later on) but it will attempt, so far as Great Britain is concerned, to express the true mind of the Church, as inspired by the mind of the Master, on the organization of life in all its main aspects, industrial, educational, political national, international, racial, etc. And surely it is time that the Church should speak with a united voice on these vital and urgent matters. the trouble is that we have kept our religion too much in a separate compartment of our life and mind, as if it were a luxury to be enjoyed in our private life, but had little bearing on such things as commerce, industry and politics. In practice if not in theory, we have accepted far too readily the standards of a non-Christian ethic or even materialistic standards which acknowledge no ethics whatever, Christian or non-Christian, except the ethics of might as the only criterion of right. However pious we may feel ourselves to be in our private devotions or in church services, in real life we are too apt to act on the assump- tion that economics and politics are separate spheres of life, having laws of their own, not to be interfered with by spiritual or ethical laws, which may be valid enough in their own sphere but have nothing to do with such things as the law of supply and demand or the law of competi- tion in commerce, any more than they can inter- fere with the law of gravitation or the multiplica- tion table. This insidious dualism poisons our