CHAPTER VIII The Group Within the Social Order DAILY READINGS Eighth Week, First Day There will always be groups within groups and there alIways should be. There are intimacies which enrich life but which cannot be very widely extended. This exquisite little psalm suggests how much it means to have these inner groups bound closely together. It seems to have been born out of some experience of reunion, when an old division had been healed, and everyone was rejoicing that the trouble was over and brothers were brotherly again. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is Even Aaron's beard; That came down upon the skirt of his garments; That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion: -Psalm 133. No divisions run deeper or are more hurtful than those within groups whose bonds are naturally most intimate. Family quarrels, community quarrels, church quarrels are the bitterest of all because they tear the closest ties. And the very first service any man can render to the social order is to see to it that the social group of which he is part is kept right within itself. Men who want to see the whole Christian Church united will not help it by splitting their own denomination, but by developing within it a spirit of unity. College spirit cannot be corrected while society spirit is divided. The inner groups are not to be maintained for their own sakes, and the time may come with any one of them when it ought to be abandoned, but while it exists it ought to be kept right within. The two figures used suggest the method of such unity. The oil was poured on Aaron's head (Lev. 8:12), but it ran with its fragrance and sanctifying influence to his feet. The dew gathered first on Hermon, but it was blown by the currents of air down on lower Mount Zion because it had gathered on the higher peak. This unity comes from the top down. Where do you stand in your social group? If you are at the top, your duty is clear; if you are not there, ought you not to be? Eighth Week, Second Day Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, That he may dwell in thy courts: We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, By terrible things thou wilt answer us in righteousness, Thou that art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, And of them that are afar off upon the sea: Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains, Being girded about with might; Who stilleth the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples. They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. -Psalm 65: 4-8. Notice the broadening of thought in the opening part of this passage. First, singular number-the man whom Thou choosest; then, plural-we shall be satisfied; then, universal -all the ends of the earth. That is the direction the movement ought to take—an individual fitting into a group for the sake of the whole. Note a similar extension in three New Testament verses: Who loved me (Gal. 2:20), Who loveth us (Rev. 1:5), so loved the world (John 3:16). How many of the groups to which you belong provoke that kind of movement? Your church, your college society, your club, has taken you into it as an individual. Does it give you a sense of larger responsibility or does it seem to exist for its own sake? Are you of any importance in your group; is your group of any importance to the social order? The unity of the movement is found in the relation of all of it to God, who maintains the conditions under which it is possible. Jesus gathered individuals into a group of twelve and a few more, and then gave them a sense of world relations, because they held relation personally and as a group to him. Notice also the nouns: goodness, righteousness, confidence, strength. How do these elements enter into the service which a group can render to the whole? If any group holds right relation to God, is it not sure to contribute at least one of these traits to the social order? Eighth Week, Third Day Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, For thy lovingkindness, and for thy truth's sake. Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever he pleased. Jehovah hath been mindful of us; he will bless us: He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. -Psalm 115: 1-3, 12, 13. Here is a writer with a keen sense of the difference between the group to which he belongs and the surrounding groups in the social order of the world. He feels the superiority of his group, its higher ideals, its finer purposes, its greater strength. There need be no sin or false pride in that. It would be affectation of humility for some groups not to know that much about themselves, even though they may wisely say as little about it as the writer does here. There are college groups that are better than others; there are community groups superior to others; there are family strains finer than others; there are churches more effective than others. Recognizing that is merely being honest. Yet anybody knows the danger of it. Being self-important about superiority reveals lack of sense of humor, which is the power to see things in their right proportion. This psalm sees things as they are. Later in it, there runs a contrast between the idols of the inferior races and the God of the Hebrews. One soldier said to another, "Change generals with us, and we will fight as well as you do." The world might say to Christendom, "Change gods with us and we will lead as you lead." Eighth Week, Fourth Day If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, Then they had swallowed us up alive, When their wrath was kindled against us: Then the waters had overwhelmed us, The stream had gone over our soul; Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be Jehovah, Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: The snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of Jehovah, -Psalm 124. Here is a group that has had to stand for itself against the larger forces of the other groups about it. It is a psalm of some notable national deliverance. The saying that God is on the side of the heaviest guns is not true. The Covenanters of Scotland, the Huguenots of France, the Waldenses of Italy have outlasted the larger forces that were against them. The persistence of moral minorities is a perfectly familiar fact of history. The Hebrews themselves, when they were a factor in Eastern history, are a good illustration of the way in which a small group with inherent value can persist in spite of tremendous odds against them. We tell ourselves to be sure we are right and then to go ahead. If any group will see to it that it is right, God will see to it that it goes ahead. We need to keep that in mind when we take our places in groups that have hard tasks before them, groups like reform agencies or societies for the correction of any abuses. They have a hard row before them, doubtless; it seems in the plan of the world that things worth doing should have elements of difficulty about them; but a moral minority is still the biggest force in any situation. It does not get swallowed up when floods rise out of the social order. The universe, God's universe, is with it. Lincoln's saying about being on God's side of questions is profoundly true. Eighth Week, Fifth Day By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, Upon the willows in the midst thereof We hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive required of us songs, And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing Jehovah's song In a foreign land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her skill. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, If I remember thee not; If I prefer not Jerusalem Above my chief joy. -Psalm 137: 1-6. A bit from an exile psalm. The danger here was that the identity of the group might be swallowed up in the larger and less worthy whole that surrounded it. There are doubtless times when a group has rendered its service and ought to be absorbed into the order which it has made sufficiently like itself. But when men do honestly stand for something which is essential, then it demands courage to maintain their separateness for that purpose. Yielding vital things for the sake of accommodation to surroundings is easy-and ruinous. Jesus spoke of the possibility of salt losing its saltness, ΙΟΙ |