In the
social organism there is specialization of work, one member performing
one function and another another and all working in harmony for a
common purpose (1 Corinthians 12:14-27).
There are three great social institutions through which men seek the
larger life, the family, the church, and the state. They exist in some
form, elementary and crude it may be, wherever man is found.
Christianity entering into all human relations, has much to say about
their construction and specific powers and duties. Its mission is not
only to regenerate the heart of the individual but to penetrate and
transform society. "Its work is to leaven the whole mass of human
interests with a divinely purifying power. It touches every act and
every relation of humanity with a life from above, and interpenetrates
all that a man can do with a new spirit and a heavenly light. It
affects governments, moulds education, rectifies manners, sweetens
fellowship, makes the common ways of men better, healthier, happier,
as well as holier. Its endeavour is to realize a divine society not
hereafter only, but upon earth; to have the kingdom of God come not in
the skies alone or in the future merely, but here and among men."
The Family.--This is the earliest and most primitive social
institution. We are all born into some family, however imperfect its
form.
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