3l8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
vital than that of today's discussion has been presented to me. It lies at the heart of our religious and theological concern. I am not a partisan, but I hear the voice of One who is saying to this age and generation : "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say ? " All these problems have their roots in the cradle. The kingdom of God, if it comes at all, must come through the gateway of childhood. The principles of righteousness and justice must be planted in the child's mind before it is seven years of age, if it is to hold them all its life. An ounce of formation is worth a ton of reformation. Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D. : I want to put all the emphasis I can upon the magnificent address of the morning, every word of which I believe. The first and the whole question seems to me to be to find out whether we believe the gospel of Christ or not. The Sermon on the Mount is not a secondary element in the gospel. It gives us the practical application of God's fatherhood and the brotherhood of man. The fundamental question is ; Uo we believe that we are (not may become) the children of God ? The question of our belief in that, and of our action upon our belief, is the whole question for us. If we believe it, we Icnow what our action must be. No small part of the gospel's dynamic is in the Sermon on the Mount.
A. M. Fairbairn, D.D., principal of Mansfield College, Oxford: I should not like to say that 1 indorse every word of Dr. Taylor's address. With its spirit I cordially agree, but from its criticism of the attitude of the churches toward the industrial classes at the introduction of the factory system I as cordially dissent. The factory system made men part of the machine, and the heavenly fire which had burned upon the altars of humble peasant homes was smothered. The church did not accept this fact with indifference. There was nothing that stood for the poor man and helped his cause through all that transition like the church, and it has worked ever since against the tendency to make men mere "hands." If the voice of religion has been silenced in the home of the workingman, who is to blame ? The church did its best to hold the men, but in came the great factory, which took the men from their homes, swept them into work at daylight, swept them out again for a half hour for breakfast, kept them prisoners all through the day, with another brief dinner space, and swept them out again in the evening jaded, tired, too worn out to think of aught but sleep. The men had no time to keep their altars alight. The factory reduced the man to a part of the machine — a "hand," and nothing more. To preserve religion amid the social changes of the past has been no easy task. We must be just. We carry on by our prayers and sacrifices the labors of the past. I hold indi- viduality to be a mighty force, but I acknowledge other forces as mighty. And we have a conscience to create in the state, as well as in the family and the community.
Rev. D. L. Ritchie, of Newcastle-on-Tyne : The evangelical churches of England have cared for the soul, but have not forgotten the body. Our
