osts, that is, the
one who would give victory to them in their battles, and who would prove
the leader of their hosts. But Christ came to the world in God's name to
universalize this narrow tribal idea of God, proclaiming peace on earth
and good will to men. It was the dawn of a new era, the Christian era.
That light which shone upon the old world is darkened by the cloud
hanging low over Europe at the present time. We cannot think, however,
that it is permanently extinguished. To that light the nations of the
earth must again return.

The Area of Moral Obligation.

Third--Christ gave to the world of His day an enlarged idea of the area
of moral obligation. He insisted most stoutly upon the expansion of the
scope of individual responsibility. This freeing of the idea of duty
from the limitations of race prejudice is a natural corollary to the
idea of the universality of God's relation to the world. Corresponding
to the tribal view of God there is always an accompanying idea of the
restricted obligation of the individual. To care for one's own family or
one's own clan or tribe and present a hostile front to the rest of
mankind has always been the characteristic feature of primitive
morality. It was peculiarly the teaching of Christ which brought to the
world the idea that the area of moral obligation is co-extensive with
the world itself. There are no racial or national lines which can limit
the extent of our responsibility. The world today needs to learn this
lesson anew, and it is evident that it must acquire this knowledge
through bitter and desperate experiences. We must interpret in this
large sense the great moral dictum of the German philosopher, Kant, that
every one in a particular circumstance should act as he would wish all
men to act if similarly circumstanced and conditioned. This is the
complete universalizing of our moral obligations--stripping our sense of
duty of everything that is particular and local and isolated. The
natural tendency of human nature is to particularize our relations to
God and bound our relations to our fellow-men; to narrow our relations
to God so as to embrace only our direst needs, and to circumscribe our
relations to man so as to include in the field of responsibility only
those who are our kin or our own kind. The time has certainly come for
us to take larger views of the world, of man, and of God.

After the great calamity of this present war is passed there must
necessarily