the multitudes, slain at last in lingering torture, He showed how man might bear himself, meek, gentle, tender-hearted, unselfish, loving, forgiving, pure from sin and striving constantly to bring his fellow-men back to the love and the kingdom of their Father. It was no longer the commandments given in darkness and thunder on Sinai, it was no longer the preaching of prophets; it was, and is, the lesson of an actual human being, in the midst of human surroundings, living the perfect life which God requires everyone to live, and which He has thus shown may be lived now on earth as well as hereafter in heaven. For none can say it cannot, since it was lived by Christ. 1 The third purpose was to teach and expound the will of God more fully and clearly than it had ever been before. John the Baptist had proclaimed a message, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' This same message, in the same words, was repeated by our Lord in the commencement of His public teaching. The Jews failed to understand it, for they fell into the fatal error of imagining that He spoke of a kingdom of this world, which should be restored to them. Even 1 Matt. iii. 2. 2 2 Ibid. iv. 17. CHAP. VIII] KINGDOM OF GOD 121 our Lord's chosen disciples long so understood it, questioning Him, 'Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?' Almost the whole of our Lord's teaching was therefore devoted to the explanation of what this message of the kingdom truly meant. Here we may note that the word 'Gospel' is from the Saxon 'God's spell,' or God's message, and is a translation from the Latin and Greek Evangelium, which means the good message. Therefore our first duty is to try to understand what the full purpose of this Divine good message is. Let us begin with the reason proposed for repentance, For the kingdom of heaven [or of God] is at hand.' This kingdom means obviously the government or rule of God. In one sense He always rules. He rules even over the rebels, for none can resist His power; He rules even in hell, for the devils must submit to Him. But here the obvious sense is His rule over willing subjects; the rule which is most perfect in heaven, where all are willing. This is indicated when it is said, speaking of the final Judgment, 'They shall come 1 Luke xix. 11; Acts i. 6. 6 2 Generally the kingdom of heaven' in St. Matthew (except vi. 33); 'of God' in the other Gospels. from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.' So also in the parable of the householder hiring labourers; 2 and in that of the man sowing good seed in the field, the kingdom of heaven is spoken of as the ultimate reward of obedience. And in the description of the Judgment day it is proclaimed to the righteous, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' 4 But to those who repent and accept the gracious message, the kingdom of God may be even in this world. Thy kingdom come. For we are bidden to pray Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' And speaking of little chil 1 Luke xiii. 29. 2 Matt. xx. 1. 3 Ibid. xiii. 24. 4 Ibid. xxv. 34. CHAP. VIII] NATURE OF THE KINGDOM 123 God is within you.' "1 And that such a state is most earnestly to be desired is shown by likening it to a pearl of great price, or a treasure hid in a field, which is so valuable that all other possessions are abandoned in order to obtain it; while its ability to fill and satisfy the mind is explained under the figure of the grain of mustard seed growing into a tree, which the birds come to lodge in.3 These references, which do not exhaust the passages that might be adduced, show that the kingdom of God means the acceptance by the soul, whether individually or in a community, of the absolute government of God; and consequently the attitude of entire submission of the human will to the Divine. Therefore, when the Lord preached the message that the kingdom was at hand, He signified that a new urgent offer, entreaty, command was being held out to men to bring them into the state of obedience to God which so many of them had till now repudiated, thus making themselves outcasts from His kingdom and subject to the penalty of death. It was the offer of restoration to paradise, lost 1 Luke xvii. 21. through our own disobedience, as Adam and Eve had lost it at first. For paradise was and is the kingdom of God, life in it was and is the presence of God, and the recognition of Him as the supreme and blessed Creator and Ruler. So the proclamation that His kingdom was at hand was the declaration that men might again enter therein, might pass from death unto life, might in this actual world and present existence walk again with their Maker, and begin at this moment the unending bliss of eternity. For most assuredly the promise of God spoken by Christ could not be vain, and the command to pray that the kingdom of God might come at once must have the meaning that it would come if we should so pray. Therefore let every man and woman and child take this promise into their heart, and bear the constant thought that the kingdom of God, which means at once paradise and heaven, may be within us, if only we will accept the condition on which it is offered. The one condition was stated by our Lord to be repentance, and on repentance there was sins.' Repentance is promised remission of understood by us now to signify sorrow for the 1 Mark i. 4, 15, ii. 5, 17. |