426 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
to conform to a bad social standard it is certainly incumbent upon him to erect a new.
Second. The earliest attempts which the primitive Christians made towards the incorporation of the kingdom of God were, like those of their Master, in the line of philanthropic effort. Peter and John healed the lame man in lieu of alms, 1 and within the little body of believers themselves one of the first expressions of the new social spirit was in the sharing of wealth among the brethren. 2 In charity there has always been a point of contact between the Christian society and the world that has been of the greatest service. Charity is of necessity not a permanent need of the world, if ever the kingdom of God is to be realized, but as social life is constituted today Jesus saw that it was of the very utmost importance. He worked out the details of the social obligations of men of wealth with deliberation and firm touch. In giving dinners they are to treat poor people as their equals, even though they cannot expect equivalent return for social favors. 3 The buyer of land and oxen, as well as the new- made husband, are seen by Jesus to serve as the type of those who, because of their own indifference, are to be replaced at the king's supper by those of the highways and hedges. 4 And if wealth is to be devoted to social purposes it must be with no sense of superiority or unaccompanied by the giver's sympathy and love. The poor widow, he said, gave more than the rich, though she gave but two mites, 5 and the neighborliness of the good Samaritan was certainly seen less in his expenditure of money than in his services to the unfortunate traveler. 6 As Paul later so finely said, if one were to give all his goods to feed the poor, and had not love, it would profit him nothing. 7 One's own desires are to be the measure of acts that affect others. 8 Accordingly, the frequent reference to almsgiving 9 can have little other meaning than that it may serve as a means of furthering
'Acts 3: 1 sq. 5 Mark 12:41-44. 8 Matt. 7: 12.
a Acts2:44. * Luke 10:30 *?. Matt. 5: 42 ; 6 : 2-4 ; Luke 12 = 33.
'Luke 14:13- 7 i Cor. 13:3.
Matt. 22 : i-io ; Luke 14: 16-24.
