If I may be permitted to illustrate my thought, allow me to call attention to the fact that church members are sometimes compelled to pay cut-throat rates for short-time loans when there are within the same congregation members who are loaning at lawful rates to non-church members.  Does it not seem incredible that the money of Christians is available for the outside world and yet not within reach of needy brethren?  It would be easy for each church to organize within its membership a loan society and use the money supplied by the well-to-do for the accommodation of those temporarily embarrassed.  Sometimes the chattel mortgage sharks collect one hundred per cent, or more and the banks, which are established for the purpose of making small short-time loans, usually collect twenty to thirty per cent.  Why should a church member be driven to these extremities when the loanable money in the church is sufficient for all needs?  Surely church membership ought to be better security for a small amount than either a chattel or a real estate mortgage.

Another illustration; the fraternities are splendid organizations and are founded on high principles, but the church might be expected to do for its members some of the work left to fraternities.  They care for the sick and bury the dead!  Is it not a reflection on the church that its members should ever be compelled to go outside for assistance in such emergencies?

There are many other forms of indifference, but indifference is the least harmful of the manifestations of the lack of brotherhood.  We have cases of positive and deliberate injury practiced against those who stand in the relation of brothers.  We have had a riot of exploitation in this country; profiteering has been carried on on an appalling scale:  men have been thrusting their larcenous hands into the pockets of their church brethren, as well as into the pockets of the public.

We have also the unequal combat between the tax-eater and the taxpayer, and we have the perennial conflict between the different groups of taxpayers, each trying to shift the burden onto the other, not to speak of that very considerable company who, for profit, cultivate vice as the farmer cultivates his crops.  All conscious and deliberate injustice is proof of hatred and to such as engage in such wrong-doing the language of John ought to come as a stinging rebuke.  It would work a revolution in society as well as in the Church if all the members proved their love of God by fair dealing with their fellowmen.

Christ confines Himself usually to the laying down of broad, fundamental principles instead of supplying rules and formulae.  He cleanses the heart and then gives to life the law of love which should pervade all human relationships, as the law of gravitation pervades the universe.  But the Master at times went from generalities into details, making the path of duty so plain that no one can excuse himself if he strays there form.