The existing social order can never be redeemed unless a fire can be kindled on the earth in whose clear shining light such deeds as these can be seen in all their deformity, and in whose purifying flame such excuses as these will be utterly consumed.  We must have laws to make such wrongs impossible; but behind the laws must be the moral insight and the social passion which shall make them effective, and it is the business of the church to furnish these.  When this is done we shall have made a good beginning in the work of social redemption.

But it will be only a beginning.  The work of John the Baptist comes first, but one mightier than he must follow.  The voice of one crying in the wilderness is but the prelude of that larger revelation which is made upon the mountain top.  To bring home to men the obligations of the law, and to show them wherein they are failing to obey it, is the first duty of the church in the present crisis; but it is the gospel with which she is primarily put in charge.

Clearer teaching about social morality is fundamental, but the great need, after all, is the vitalization of morality.  The moral code, no matter how accurate may be its precepts, tends to become a dead letter, unless it is constantly revivified by the spirit of religion.

The Sermon on the Mount is often conceived of as purely ethical teaching, but the heart of it all is religion.  The revelation of the Fatherhood of God is the light which shines through all these words and furnishes the motive of all this morality.  If we do the things here commanded, in the way that Jesus expects us to do them, it is because we know ourselves to be the children of our Father in heaven, living in his presence, rejoicing in the great love wherewith he has loved us, trusting in his care, seeking his kingdom, doing his will.  The church which represents Jesus Christ in the world will never forget that its business is the leavening of society with the life of Christ; but neither can it forget that the life of Christ can only be maintained by constant communion with the Father.  That the spiritual life of Jesus himself was thus maintained, the record makes clear.  The central fact of his experience was his living union with the Father.  We talk of “the practice of the presence of God;” Jesus was the only man who has ever perfectly realized it.  And no one who knew him ever failed to see that it was the Father’s kindness and compassion and grace and truth that were being manifested in his life.  It was because he was filled with all the fullness of God that he imparted to those who received him the spirit of good-will, the passion for social service.