HUMAN SOCIETY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 288, 24 August 1918, Page 9

HUMAN SOCIETY

THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION

LECTURE BY BISHOP SPROTT

At I lie Victoria Collego gymnasium last evening the Anglican Bishop of Wellington (Dr. SprotQ delivered a lecture to University students, his subject being "The Christian Conception ol Human Society." Mr. I. L. G. Sutherland, president of tho Victoria College Christian Union, presided, and in a brief speech introduced the Bishop. Dr. Sprott said lie would only bo able to place Ix'foro them a few desultory thoughts which might not lie altogether fresh to tho older members of the college. Ho was going to baso his lecture chief!v on what could be gathered from St. Paul's writings. St. Paul had not known Jesus on earth, yet we may tako from him tho conception of human society. In one of liis Epistles to the Corinthians St. Paul compares human society to the human body. The Christian Church was to be the nucleus of the redeemed society. Tho principles wliich found favour iii those early days m Christian society wero not the principles of society generally. St. Paul regarded the individual as a member of the body. Ho is not self-contained or self-sufficient. The well-being of the body depends upon tho healthy function anil the health o1 the whole. It was difficult to say whether the individual exists for society or society for the individual. AVe each differed from the other—it was marvellous how different wo were. There, had never been two faces exactly alike, though there might be a considerable likeness. We had each got our individuality; and wo were all by that reason capable of making some contribution to the welfare of society. Here we were, in New Zealand a community, and eacli ono had a special contribution to make, and the welt-being of tho wholo was dependent upon each, as tho well-being of each was dependent upon the whole. Cooperation, and not competition, would be what St. Paul would ascribe to ns. Nationality was a real thing. It was in tho family that ivo first learned the corporate idea; the national group was the State. On one occasion St. Paul appeared beforo a university, and that was when ho visited Athens. St. Paul was brought beforo the council of tho uni versity, becauso he was thought by the philosophers of Athens to bo an itinerant lecturer, and tho council was to determine whether ho should or should not be licensed to lecture. Ho was prohibited, but he seized tho opportunity to deliver a powerful! address to tho council. In that address, having taken as his text an inscription in Athens, "To tho Unknown God," he explained who this unknown God was. Ho was tho living God, and (ho Creator of Heaven and Earth. St. Paul described how peoplo break up into nations and the differentiation of the nations. St. Paul regarded national distinctions as of Divine origin, and thought that each nation could contribute to the well-being of tho whole. The individual, tho family, tile nation, had each and all their endowments In contribute to tho well-being of humanity.

Human society had a constitution given lo it by Clod. Alan in the state of naturo was essentially at war with his fellows, and finding that war was irksome, men formed a society. .Humanity had a constitution, its ties were not legal, but vital —tho relationship was vital. It was God's constitution of man—the family, the nation, tho race, making Iho organic whole. That was tho constitution. St. Paul gave lo society a theological 'basis. Ho traced all back to God. Thero camo a limo when we were compelled to ask if our lives, the lives of our families, and of our race, were so based—whether thoy rested on this solid foundation or whether thero was anything stable beneath us. Even in peace times, if there had been national eruptions, they had been against tho forces of grce.l, of lust, of cruelty, that continually assailed a nation. Tho theological basis gave us the hope that brotherhood and love and cooperation would animate human society. The thirteen! h chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians gave us t.ho spirit that should animato human society. That spirit was love. It' the thirteenth chapter were read willi the twefth we got the constitution of human society and the spirit that should animato that society. That was the Christian conception of human socioty. No legislation could generate the spirit of 'ove. Wo blow the poweii'lessncss of legislation tii bring about that brotherhood. Tho ibig strike of 1913 came in spite of our laws of compulsory arbitration. Arbitration did some good, but it did not accomplish what it set out to do. Tho love that St. Paul described controlled all virtues. And the reason why arbitration would not achieve the ircsults that it was intended to achieve was because disputants were not always really desirous or anxious to have tho just thing done. They' were not always animated by tho desiro for justice, 'but each side desired to gain an advantage. This artificial system would only work satisfactorily in a society where everyone was keenly desirous for justice. '