LITERATURE. Burns, C. D., The Morality of Nations (1915). Carpenter, J. E., in Ethical and Religious Problems of the War (1916). Clifford, J., The Secret of Jesus (1904). Diggle, J. W., in The Hibbert Journal (Oct. 1914). Emmet, C. W., in The Faith and the War (1915). 66 Davidson, R. T., “ Quit you like Men " (1915). Gardner, C. S., The Ethics of Jesus and Social Progress (1913). Hodgkin, H. T., in The Constructive Quarterly (March 1915). Horton, R. F., Reconstruction (1915). Hume, R. A., An Interpretation of India's Religious History (1911). Jones, J. D., The Unfettered Word (1912). Jowett, B., Sermons Biographical and Miscellaneous (1899). Liddon, H. P., Advent in St. Paul's (1891). Lowrie, W., Abba, Father (1908). Mackintosh, H. R., Immortality and the Future (1915). Marshall, H. R., War and the Ideal of Peace. Masterman, J. H. B., The Challenge of Christ (1913). Mozley, J. K., The Christian Hope in the Apocalypse (1915). Muirhead, J. H., German Philosophy in Relation to the War (1915). Oldham, J. H., The Decisive Hour: Papers for War Time, No. 5 (1914). Peters, J. P., Modern Christianity (1909). Rashdall, H., Conscience and Christ (1916). Rawlinson, A. E. J., Dogma, Fact and Experience (1915). Roberts, R., in Friends and the War (1915). Shillito, E., Through the War to the Kingdom (1915). Thornton, L. S., Conduct and the Supernatural (1915). THE REALIZATION OF THE IDEAL. CHRIST's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount contains an ideal of life. It is an ideal for the individual disciple, that he is to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect. When he becomes a disciple he becomes a member of the Kingdom of God, and within that sphere he with other disciples lives his life and endeavours to reach his ideal. He presses toward the goal in order to obtain the prize of his high calling. Now the ideal of personal perfection may not be reached in this life. But the follower of Christ is bound to make every effort by faith and love to be "perfect," not only in the first sense of acceptance in Christ, but also in the further sense of fellowship with Christ. He must not be content until every thought is brought into captivity to the mind of Christ. He must learn, by however slow and painful a process, to love his enemies. If any man smites him on the right cheek he must turn the other, understanding that that is an instance of a general principle which he is to apply according to the circumstances in which he is placed and the opportunities which his life offers. As he does these things, and other disciples do them with him, the will of God is done on earth as in heaven and the Kingdom of God comes. ¶ We admit that many evils may arise out of premature attempts to live the life of angels, forgetting that we are but men : but the ideal would be useless if it exercised no influence on our lives and actions, if it brought the world no nearer to Christ. At some time, we know not when; at some place, we know not where; in our hearts, if not in the history of nations, we believe that truth and peace will prevail. The ultimate end is the love of God and man diffused throughout the world and in every age; and we may make some progress towards the realization of this great hope. But the end on which we fix our eyes is a long way off, and we cannot anticipate the silent influence of opinion.1 1. The Kingdom of God is not limited in its realization by the conditions of our present existence, but it is manifested under them. It is in the world though it is not of the world. The scene on which it is shown to be realized is the scene of human life. The Spirit, which is consistently spoken of in the New Testament as a pledge or instalment, guaranteeing the fulness of the future Kingdom, was in the actual experience of the early disciples far more than a mere earnest of the future. It was a present Reality which dominated and possessed them, a transforming Presence by which they were moulded and inspired. Outwardly it was manifested in ecstatic utterances, in the enthusiasm of prophesyings, in healings and works of power. Inwardly it wrought in them as a fountain of love and joy and peace, a certainty of salvation so glad and strong and free that it could face rulers and kings, suffering and persecution and death, and "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus" their Lord. 2. Thus the most important question is not, Are we to wait until after death for that " perfection" which we are told to reach? Nor is it, Are we to look for the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God in time or in eternity? The question is, Did Christ promise the immediate coming of the Kingdom, or did He warn His disciples that the victory over the world would be slowly won? For if the Coming was immediate, the disciples would, of course, proceed at once to put His precepts into practice and probably with a literal interpretation of their meaning. But, if the Coming was to be long delayed, they would understand, and every generation would understand after them, that these precepts were to be put into practice as it was found possible to apply them, and not even then with the literality of a legal instruction, but under the direction of a living spirit. Thus, in the one case, they would probably refuse to become soldiers, since they had been told to love their enemies; they might even decline to take any part in civil affairs, since their citizenship was in heaven. In the other case, they would recognize that their heavenly citizenship all the more required 1 B. Jowett, Sermons Biographical and Miscellaneous, 301. of them to accept the duties and responsibilities of earthly citizenship. O world invisible, we view thee, O world intangible, we touch thee, Does the fish soar to find the ocean, Not where the wheeling systems darken, The angels keep their ancient places ;- That miss the many-splendoured thing. But (when so sad thou canst not sadder) Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter, I. THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM. 1. Two different types of teaching seem to be contained in the Gospels about the Coming of the Kingdom of God. (1) On the one hand words are frequent which imply or expressly state that Christ taught that that present "generation should 1 Francis Thompson. not pass away till all things were accomplished," that the disciples would not have time even to "go through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man be come," and that the final consummation of the Kingdom would come "like a thief in the night," in sudden and catastrophic form. Such sayings are so numerous, and in many cases so intimately bound up with the context and with other sayings, that they cannot be explained away without grave risk of explaining away along with them the historical character of the Gospels altogether. Moreover, even if such language could be eliminated from the Gospels, the universal belief of the primitive Church-testified to in practically every one of the Epistlescould hardly be accounted for, except as based on something in our Lord's teaching. (2) On the other hand, it is equally unscientific to explain away the collective force of certain passages of a different tenor. Such are the parables of the Mustard Seed and Leaven, the Seed growing secretly, the Hidden Treasure, and the Pearl of great Price; also certain shorter sayings like, "If I by the finger of God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of God come upon you," "the Kingdom of God is within you"; or again, the mention of the fact that "the blind see, the lame walk . . the poor have the Gospel preached unto them," as a token to John the Baptist that our Lord was the Expected One. And there are other less. striking utterances, all of which seem to imply that there is a sense in which the Kingdom is already present. Many of them, indeed, also imply, and all are consistent with, the view that in another sense it is still future, and that only in the light of the richness of that future will the real importance of the present be seen. The future, indeed, is the harvest, but the present is the seed. 2. How could our Lord speak at one time of the immediacy of the end of the world, and at another of its long delay? He was a prophet. Now the function of the Hebrew prophets was not primarily to forecast future events, but to interpret the ways of God to man. Their claim was not in its essence that of the soothsayer or the clairvoyant. They were, first and foremost, men uniquely sensitive to spiritual issues, who saw God at work in the world, but who saw also His purposes thwarted and defeated |