“Set up thy standard, Lord, that we
      Who claim a heavenly birth
    May march with thee to smite the lies
      That vex thy groaning earth.

    “We fight for truth, we fight for God,
      Poor slaves of lies and sin! 
    He who would fight for thee on earth
      Must first be true within.

    “Thou God of truth, for whom we long,
      Thou who wilt hear our prayer,
    Do thine own battle in our hearts,
      And slay the falsehood there.

    “Still smite! still burn! till naught is left
      But God’s own truth and love;
    Then, Lord, as morning dew come down,
      Rest on us from above.

    “Yea, come! thus tried as in the fire,
      From every lie set free,
    Thy perfect truth shall dwell in us
      And we shall live in thee.”

It is hardly needful to say that the redemption of the social order will not be wrought out without sacrifice.  “The redemption of the soul is costly,” says the Psalmist.  No man is rescued from moral degradation and death without suffering and sacrifice.  Those who are saved are more often saved by the suffering of others in their behalf than by their own suffering.  But the price of a soul is apt to be high, and love is sometimes able to pay it.

The redemption of society from the welter of selfishness and brutishness and cruelty into which it is now plunged will be a costly undertaking.  The church is here, as Christ’s representative, to take up this work; and it must not expect to accomplish it without suffering.  “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord.”  If the Church is Christ’s servant, she must not expect to find any better way than his way of saving the world.

It is true, as we have seen, that the present deplorable conditions are due to the failure of the church to enforce the Christian morality.  The price that she must pay for the redemption of society is heavy because of her own neglect.  But it must be paid.  There is no other way of salvation.

Thus it appears that the church which bears the name of Jesus Christ has come to its testing time.  It finds itself in the midst of a society whose tendencies are downward.  Mammon is on the throne; the greed of gain is eating the heart out of commercial honor; reputations are crumbling; confidence is rudely shaken; the most cynical schemes for plundering the multitudes are daily brought to light; social classes stand over against each other distrustful and defiant; the house of mirth resounds with the mad revelry of the wasters, while the purlieus are noisome with poverty and vice.

Can this society be redeemed?  Can this all-ruling commercialism be held in check, and this reign of plunder be overthrown, and all this seething selfishness and heartlessness and suspicion be made to give place to good-will and kindness, to trust and truth, to faith and honor?  It will never be done without a vast expenditure of sacrificial love.  “This kind goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting.”  Is the church ready for this struggle?  Is she willing to put forth the effort and pay the cost which is required for the redemption of society?