True, it is that by the selfishness and thoughtlessness of man large portions of the earth’s surface have been despoiled; mountains have been denuded of their forests; fertile lands have been worn out, and fruitful fields have become wildernesses.  But we are beginning to reverse this tendency, and now many a wilderness is being reclaimed, arid plains are green with corn, and the forests are creeping back upon the hillsides.  As men become socialized, as they learn to cooeperate for the common good, as some sense of their social responsibility gets possession of their minds, we shall see this process extending; the waste of the common resources of the earth will cease; deserts will be visited by the life-giving water; swamps and jungles will be subdued; the earth, in many regions now uninhabited and desolate, will be made to bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

All this is the natural result of the quickening in human hearts of the social sentiments, by which they are drawn into closer cooeperation for the common good; and this quickening of the social sentiments is the work that Christ came to do, and the work that his church will be doing, with all her might, as soon as she fully understands what is her business in the world.

The redemption of the physical order will be the result of the socialization of mankind.  It is an integral part of the work that Christ came into the world to do.  It is part of what he meant when he said that he came to save the world.  When we realize this, we get some idea of the scope of the redemption which he proclaims.  It is not a superficial or a sentimental thing that he proposes; it takes hold of life with the most comprehensive grasp; it proposes to redeem not only man but his environment.

It is not, however, the redemption of the physical order to which Christ primarily addresses himself.  He begins in the spiritual realm.  He begins with the individual.  His first concern is to reveal to every child of God the great fact of the divine Fatherhood, and to bring him into filial relations.  His whole programme for humanity rests on this simple possibility of realizing the Fatherhood of God.  If this can be realized, everything else will follow.  If any man is in the right filial relations with his Father in heaven, he cannot be in wrong social relations with his brother on the earth.  If he is in harmony with God in thought and feeling, he must think God’s thoughts about his neighbor, and the law of love will be the law of all his conduct.  No man can love the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with heart and soul and mind without loving his neighbor as himself.  Heartily to believe what Jesus has told us about the Father, and fully to enter into fellowship with him, is to put ourselves into such relations with our fellow men that every duty we owe them will be spontaneously performed.  In a society composed of men who were thus in harmony with God the only social question for each man would be, “How can I best befriend and serve my neighbor?”