The church is NOT a social institution

I cannot accept the statement that the church is a social institution in your sense. A church to me consists of people who are truly Christian. Now then, you say, what is the relevance of this to the social conditions and the problems? Well, I would say that it is the business of individual Christians to play their part in society. And, of course, historically this is what is most interesting. The church has had her greatest influence upon society and social conditions when she's been most evangelical. Now, this isn't, again, my theory. I can establish this. I was in Scotland last week commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of John Knox. You read the account of the conditions in Scotland before Knox, and he's always charged with intolerance and all the things you were saying. But that man changed the life of the whole of Scotland. He introduced an educational system. He changed it morally, politically, and in every respect. The Puritans did it in this country. Cromwell, don't forget, was an evangelical Christian. And then you come on to the 18th century. You have the evangelical awakening and the Whitefield and the Wesley's. That did more to improve social conditions in this country than all the dabbling of ecclesiastics in politics.