enemies of social organization and order, while the people have made little progress toward well-ordered liberty; and it is the most distinctively Protestant nations which have been characterized by steady progress and comparative freedom from domestic revolution and disturbance. 4. The violence incident to an epoch in the growth of Christ's kingdom is an evil. Because our own government was founded in a revolution, we are in danger of associating a revolution with glory, of thinking that the overturn of what has been established is in itself progress to something better, and so of falling into that insatiableness of reform which, like Saturn, perpetually devours its own children; or, as Izaak Walton puts it, whets the knife till there is no steel left in it. But the American Revolution scarcely was a revolution in the proper sense of the term. It perpetuated the principles and, with little change, the form of government to which the colonies had been accustomed; it only separated them from a distant nation; it only accelerated an epoch which was coming as the inevitable result of growth; only shaking the tree to hasten the fall of the ripened fruit. The benefits accruing are not the result of the revolution, but come, in spite of the evils of revolutionary violence, because the change effected was the natural result of healthy growth. The immense majority of revolutions attempted by violence have been failures, and have hindered, rather than helped, the progress of society. 5. The epochs in the growth of Christ's kingdom are often not recognized as such at the time of their coming. They who are not in sympathy with Christ fail to recognize them, because they have not spiritual discernment, and "cannot see the kingdom of God." So the Jews did not know the Messiah for whom they were eagerly looking, and their fathers before them did not know God's prophets. And even good men may fail to recognize such an epoch, because it is attended with confusion, conflict, and distress. Hence, in such an epoch, the noblest sentiments will be ridiculed as fanaticism; the principles of justice, when pro pounded as the principles of constitutional law and social organization and order, will be flouted, and they who are the prophets of righteousness abused as disturbers of the peace and order of society. In every such epoch are persons of the type of those who said of the apostles: "These men are full of new wine." For the same reason such epochs are attended with discouragement and reaction. The Israelites, amid the hardships of their journey to the promised land, clamored to be led back to Egypt. It is a type of the reaction attending the epochs of human progress. Men see only the difficulties of the crisis, and long for the ease and quiet of the former life. The glory of such a period is fully seen only after it is past. It does not shine till the observer is far enough removed to see it in its wholeness. Then it shines like the moon, full-orbed in silver light, with only the dimmest intimation of its dismal ravines and horrid mountains. We then think all the actors in it to be heroes, and wish, we could have shared in a work so great, and witnessed events so glorious. 6. In the epochs of the growth of Christ's kingdom the progress is usually further than the agents in them had originally intended. This is true of epochs in political and social progress. The American Revolution began with no intention of achieving independence; our civil war began with no intention of freeing the slaves; the Italian war began with no intention of giving unity to Italy. The same is true of the progress of Christ's kingdom. The Protestant Reformation began with no intention of separating from Rome; Wesley began with no wish to leave the church of England; American missions began with no expectation of becoming so extensive as they now are; even the apostles began to preach Christ with no very clearly defined purpose of separating from Judaism. God is bolder than man. His grace and providence are at work in human progress. Therefore the people find themselves borne on by a power beyond man's will, a wisdom outreaching man's counsel, a boldness beyond man's daring. It is wonderful to see how, in such a time, the mere progress of events solves problems which had seemed insoluble, removes difficulties which had seemed insuperable, and makes safe and easy measures which had seemed perilous or impracticable. 7. Epochs necessitate new ideas and a new policy. The gospel is always the same; but what is wise in policy and practicable in statesmanship changes with the changing time. "The wisdom of winter is the folly of spring." It is not strange that in great epochs the old lingers after the new has come, like blocks of ice lingering on the river's bank after it has been broken up in the spring, and melting but slowly into the running stream. Sympathy with Christ and his kingdom is necessary in order to understand an epoch, to know the ideas, and wisely to determine the policy fitted to the changed conditions. Here is the difference between the preacher of righteousness, the reformer or prophet, and the statesman. The former is a prophet rebuking sin, holding up the ideal of moral perfection, and warning against the displeasure of God. He preaches Christ's kingdom and righteousness to elevate the people and to prepare them for institutions embodying the highest moral purity. But the maxim of the statesman is always the words of Hesiod, with a new application: "Fools, who do not know how much better half is than the whole." 1 The statesman does not attempt to carry through measures and laws, and to create institutions realizing an ideal perfection. He seeks the practicable, rather than the ideal, approximating to the ideal as rapidly as the actual advancement of society admits. He knows that the attempt to embody in institutions an ideal of perfection far in advance of the actual character of the people would probably result in a reaction, undoing much of the progress already attained. The half is better than the whole. God himself has 1 Νήπιοι· ουδὲ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός, Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, 40, 41. sanctioned the principle that political institutions and laws are to be modified on account of the hardness of men's hearts. Hence it is the Christian, in sympathy with God's truth, who sees the kingdom of God, and understands the epochs of its growth when they come. In the quiet times before the epoch comes, the Christian may be at fault. Intent on his moral ideals, and impatient of the seeming slowness of God's movements, he may unwisely insist on the immediate expression of all truth in institutions and laws, putting new wine into old bottles, and sewing a new patch on an old garment. But when the epoch has come, possessing the hearts of men with its new ideas, and demanding a new policy, then it is the Christian who sees clearly; while the man accustomed to the statesman's habit of thought is confounded, and, unable to see the significance of the new as it penetrates the old, babbles. VII. The Progress of the Kingdom is Cumulative. So our Saviour predicted: "He will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." Christianity has always undeveloped resources; its progress is a perpetual surprisal. Examples in our own day are the inception and growth of foreign missions, the results of home missionary work at the West, the termination of American slavery, and of the temporal power of the Pope. Every great advance of Christian truth is a surprisal even to those who had labored for it. It reveals undeveloped resources. Men marvel at the presence and energy of a power whose existence had been unknown or forgotten. The same is true of local revivals. Men acknowledge the presence and work of God; they marvel at the divine power in the Christian life. The divine grace which advances Christ's kingdom is an inexhaustible fulness of power, which while old is always new, and every manifestation appears in the freshness of its divine nature. And the energy of faith and love which it calls forth in men is an energy which has never been put fully to the test, and continually surprises by its character and results. Thus Christianity never grows old. It is like fire, always the same, if it exists at all. It comes to every generation as fresh and young as at the beginning, as the sun and the stars go up the sky as bright and glorious as in the day of their creation. It is this undecaying freshness of divine grace and human faith and love which gives to Christianity in every generation the power of astonishing the world by its new developments. And there is to-day a power in faith and love which Christians as yet imperfectly appreciate, which, if fully exercised, would do greater things in advancing Christ's kingdom than the world has ever witnessed. The greatest earthly power is the power of a human being thoroughly in earnest. And when that earnestness is sustained by faith and love, its power is immeasurable. The work accomplished by every Christian thoroughly in earnest, from Paul's day until now, has been a perpetual surprisal; before him and his achievements all men marvel. This power is therefore cumulative; it is always able to produce greater and better effects. The progress of the kingdom is cumulative, also, from the increase of numbers. Every convert becomes a new spiritual power for the world's conversion. It is cumulative, also, from the Christian growth of individuals. The power of each one grows in intensity, is freed from conflicting elements, and reaches out in new directions, and finds wider scope for itself in resisting evil and bringing men to Christ. Christian ideas, also, become incorporated into society, form public sentiment, determine customs, laws, and institutions, and thus create for themselves an organic force. Then the customary ongoings of life and civilization help the progress of Christ's kingdom. The currents of popular thought, political agitations, inventions, manufactures, commerce, contribute to its advance. Influences are incorporated into society which work with the Christian while he works, and work for him while he sleeps. |