It is not a smooth and thornless way.  It is a toilsome and painful way.  It is the way of the cross.  It means hardship and struggle and suffering.  Such intrenched and ingrained iniquities as now infest our society will not be overcome without conflict.  We are not calling you to a pastime.  We are not offering you riches or honors or sensual joys.  We are calling you to service and to sacrifice.  But we are going to build here in this world the kingdom of heaven.  We know that it can be done:  we know how to do it, and the glorious thing we have to tell you is that you can have a share in it.  Look forward with us to the day when—­

    “Nation with nation, land with land,
      Unarmed shall live as comrades free,
    In every heart and brain shall throb
      The pulse of one fraternity;

    “New arts shall bloom, of loftier mould,
      And mightier music thrill the skies,
    And every life shall be a song
      When all the earth is paradise,”—­

and come and help us to bring that glad time.  The Leader whom we follow knows the way, and the future belongs to Him.

That is the message of the new evangelism, and when the church learns to speak it with conviction, and to make it good in her life, she will find that the gospel has a power that she has never even imagined it to possess.

IX

The New Leadership

These discussions have failed of their purpose if they have not made a few things clear.  Let us restate them:—­

1.  The roots of religion are in human nature.  It is a fact as central and all-pervasive in the social realm as gravitation is in the physical realm.  It is no more likely to become antiquated or obsolete than oxygen or sunshine.  It is an interest which no intelligent person can afford to ignore.

2.  Like every other living thing, religion grows.  It is not outside the sphere of operation of Him who said, “Behold!  I make all things new!” It is subject, continually, to his wise economy of renewal.

3.  Our religion is Christianity.  With the other religions of the race it is destined to be brought into closer and closer comparison and competition, and that religion will survive and become universal which most perfectly explains the universe and provides for the wants of the human soul.  All the indications are that the religion which survives will include the essential elements of Christianity.

4.  All religions are rooted in the social nature of man, but Christianity, more than any other, is a social religion.  It depends for its culture and propagation upon the social forces.  Some form of social organization, like the church, is necessary to the life of religion.  Worship, to be sane and salutary, must be social; and the life of Christianity can find expression only in such cooeperations as those for which the church provides.