5. Are the issues which divided the Protestant denominations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries still vital enough to justify the continuance of the divisions? Summarize the evils of the divisions and their counter-balancing good. 6. Is the ordinary criticism of the churches fair? Are ministers overpaid or underpaid? Do the churches graft? How do the churches compare in social efficiency with other similar social institutions? V. _For Special Discussion_ 1. Why did the reformation of the Church historically precede the reform of politics and industry? 2. Do the unsolved social problems of Christian nations prove the social inefficiency of religion? Could religion alone change the maladjustment of society? 3. Why has religion been more effective in the field of private life than of public life? 4. If you had full control of the churches in a given country or village community, on what aims would you concentrate their forces? PART IV. CONQUEST BY CONFLICT Chapter X. The Conflict With Evil _The Kingdom of God Will Have to Fight for Its Advance_ The great objective is the Kingdom of God. In realizing the Reign of God on earth three recalcitrant forces have to be brought into obedience to God’s law: the desire for power, the love of property, and unsocial religion. We have studied Christ’s thought concerning these in the foregoing chapters. The advance of the Kingdom of God is not simply a process of social education, but a conflict with hostile forces which resist, neutralize, and defy whatever works toward the true social order. The strategy of the Kingdom of God, therefore, involves a study of the social problem of evil. DAILY READINGS First Day: The Consciousness of Sin in the Lord’s Prayer And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.—Matt. 6:12, 13. The Lord’s Prayer expresses the very mind and spirit of the Master. It begins with the Kingdom of God; it ends with the problem of sin. As we stand before God, we realize that we have loaded up our life with debts we can never pay. We have wasted our time, and the powers of body and soul. We have left black marks of contagion on some whose path we have crossed. We have hurt even those who loved us by our ill-temper, thoughtlessness, and selfishness. We can only ask God to forgive and give us another chance: “Forgive us our debts.” Looking forward we see the possibility of fatal temptations. We know how fragile our power of resistance is. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Thus the consciousness of sin is written across this greatest of all prayers. Is a sense of unworthiness an indication of moral strength or of weakness? _Where do we draw the line between a normal and abnormal sense of sin?_ Second Day: Evil Embodied in Character