ogical
evolution of institutions which had their origin in the Magna Charta.
Our Declaration of Independence proclaimed that every citizen had the
right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which means the
opportunity to achieve the greatest self-development and self-realization.
The theory is that each citizen shall find his place, according to his
gifts and abilities, and be satisfied therewith. We may discover that
this is precisely what social science, in an industrial age, and by
spiritualizing human effort, aims to achieve. We may find that the
appearance of such a program as that of the British Labour Party,
supported as it is by an imposing proportion of the population of the
United Kingdom, marks a further step, not only in the advance of social
science and democracy, but also of Christianity.

I mention Christianity, not for controversial or apologetic reasons, but
because it has been the leaven of our western civilization ever since the
fall of the Roman Empire. Its constant influence has been to soften and
spiritualize individual and national relationships. The bitter
controversies, wars, and persecutions which have raged in its name are
utterly alien to its being. And that the present war is now being fought
by the Allies in the hope of putting an end to war, and is thus in the
true spirit of Christianity, marks an incomparable advance.

Almost up to the present day, both in our conception and practice of
Christianity, we have largely neglected its most important elements.
Christian orthodoxy, as Auguste Sabatier points out, is largely derived
from the older supernatural religions. The preservative shell of dogma
and superstition has been cracking, and is now ready to burst, and the
social teaching of Jesus would seem to be the kernel from which has
sprung modern democracy, modern science, and modern religion--a trinity
and unity.

For nearly two thousand years orthodoxy has insisted that the social
principles of Christianity are impractical. And indeed, until the
present day, they have been so. Physical science, by enormously
accelerating the means of transportation and communication, has so
contracted the world as to bring into communion peoples and races
hitherto far apart; has made possible an intelligent organization of
industry which, for the first time in history, can create a surplus ample
to maintain in comfort the world's population. But this demands the will
to co-operati