congrès pénitentiaire international

— 43very often forgées that; and y^onder discharged prisoner is amember of society, whom we see amidst the privilèges andopportunities again of our commonwealth. Man was not createdto be wasted and you do not make a man better by degradinghim. Law is not for itself alone, but for the man, and whensociety shall thus recognize and seek by its benefactions andadministrations to give to the individual his door of hope,God cornes to society and makes everywhere society's valleyof Achor its enduring doors of hope and life.Notice in the next place this transformation of the prisonerthat is suggested in the door of hope. The prophet déclares thevalley of Achor here me and for you, there for another man;that the valley of Achor shall become the door of hope. Firstin the right interprétation of society. Nearness implies obligation.The word neighbour carries duty. Seneca very wiselysaid, "God has divided man into man that we may help oneanother. " That old heathen was ahead of a good many peopleof the twentieth century — "that we may help one another".That is the idea of society. Gold does not exist for gold ; institutionsdo not exist for institutions ; the gospel does not existfor the gospel. Governments, gold, institutions, the gospel itself,exist for man. That is the idea of our place here ; that is thepurpose of our birth and gifts and opportunities, that man mayhave help and deliverance. We misinterpret our conditions. Wetalk now and again of this devoted man, of that good sister,who have found their vocation in some life distinctively andexclusively religious, and we dismiss ourselves in the multitudeto the suprême, absorbing and exclusive idea of money making,and we seek and pray for a home and associations as throughthèse we look for the stream of worldly success and worldlyfortune. The prayer itself is not for money, but for helpfulness.My fellow does not exist that I may exploit him, but that I mayhelp him. Ail things are for man. You make shoes; I makesermons. I go to you for shoes; I need them, and a good manyof you need my sermons. One man has the gift that is for theother man, the ministry, and that other man has the gift thatis for another man, and ail the organization of life is not forthe worldly friction, antagonism, struggles and debates of moneymaking, but money itself is only that there shall corne morelaro-ely and more richly to our fellowmen the thought and opportunltyof largeness and of richer life. Government, literature,society, institutions, church, Sabbaths, ail of them, are the scaffoldingswhich are of use for the building of the man. That iswhat life means. We are here today that yonder fellow mayhelp me and that I may help that other fellow. "Bear ye oneanother's burdens " is the law announced by Christ. He tiesus together in our mutual relationships, inter-dependence, andhe means that there shall be from one to the other the hand andthe thought and the récognition. We are helped by helping.We get by giving. Our modem civilization must recognize thisweakness and more and more rebuke and disown the idea thatrefuses récognition and the nearness of man, and that we seekmore and more a oneness, out of which shall corne a largenessand an enduringness of heart and life. The sixteenth centuryemphasized the word " responsibility ". The twentieth centuryis emphasizing the word " brotherhood". We are moving on..We do not trample underneath the word "responsibility", butit does become even a stepping-stone by which humanity ascendsto the true idea of brotherhood. The' little child by herselfkneeling by her bedside at night says, " Our Father, which art inHeaven", and thèse words taught centuries ago carried in themessentially the idea of brotherhood, and no man realizes thefatherhood of God save as he loves the brotherhood of man.We will emphasize the Ten Commandments; we will keep themwritten on the tables of stone ; we will read them in the lightof the Sermon on the Mount, in the lager light, in the moreblessed influences of the brotherhood of our fellows. This transformationwill come secondly in a legitimate récognition ofhumanity. It is the crown of création. "In the image of Godcreated he him." I do not care what philosophy you may haveabout création. We can not get away from the divine idea. Backof ail philosophy lies God, and God, in the image of God, createdman, an image deformed, defaced, befouled, yet the image ofGod, and an image which is not hopeless even in its debasement,but that at any time this side of the grave, carries in itself thepromise and hope of restoration and glory. The image of God—a