Tj Bishop Montgomery has said, " the Body of Christ is a torso." Only when the glory and honour of all nations are brought into the Kingdom will the true greatness of the Kingdom be known. A meeting of devout Christians a little while ago was startled to hear a well-known missionary say something like this : " What are the characteristic virtues of a converted Englishman ? Honesty, manliness, truthfulness, trustworthiness. And what are the characteristic virtues of the converted Hindu ? They are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." But what will be the result when the mystical and spiritual nations of the East, and the affectionate and childlike peoples of Africa, are quickened by contact with the perfection of their own virtues in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth ? Inevit- ably the whole Church will be filled with a new spirit of devotion and selflessness. Stage by stage, then, the Church must build itself up, its work at home rendering possible more work abroad, and the work abroad bringing new inspiration for the work at home ; until at last the one Purpose of God will govern all man- kind, and the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ is made known.1
7. We may still look forward to the building and expansion of Jerusalem. Let us beware of our short-sighted views of God's purposes ; our human measurements are useless and misleading. The narrow limitations of an older day will not be sufficient for the present or the future. We must have room to expand and grow; we must be large and generous in our welcome to the truth as it unfolds before us. Even if the old defences are inadequate, we will have no fear, but will rather address ourselves to our high task with a firm confidence in God's protection of God's own cause, in the wall of fire around, in the glory which abides within.
1 W. Temple, in Foundations, 358.
ZECHARIAH n. 4, 5 405
Tf The Christian religion is not a revolutionary attempt to sweep away all barriers and abolish all distinctions, but in its nature it is spiritual, diffusing itself as an atmosphere and re- fusing to be confined within the limits of any " chosen people." In connexion with the various Churches there has been much wall- building ; a needful operation at times, but not the highest order of architecture. Some minds are easily provoked to build a separating wall. If, however, any Church could succeed in making itself absolutely a sect, cutting itself off completely from the large universal currents of life, it would die; its strong wall would enclose not a living city but a silent tomb. The Church can open wide her gates just in so far as she possesses the fearless expansive life which comes from the indwelling God.1
Tj The forgiving Love of God goes freely forth to all men through the Cross, and Pardon and Salvation may be had by all without money and without price. This Gospel of the Grace of God needs to be proclaimed in all its Divine freeness and fulness, so that our faith and hope may be in God, and not in any measure in ourselves. But we need to remember that it is in His Kingdom that God so comes to us, and that we can only make the pardon offered a reality to ourselves, or find the Salvation, as we become the loyal members of God's Kingdom, and make the Divine purpose that of our individual lives. . . . And, whether we think of the Kingdom and membership in it here and hereafter, or of the Family of God and our place as children therein, we cannot but see that both call us to a life of love and unselfish devotion to the cause of God in the world. We cannot be the members of a Kingdom of God while we live in a self-regarding isolation ; and we cannot be the children of God if we are not moved by the spirit of brotherhood in relation to the other members of His great family, whether they have as yet come home to the Father, or are still wandering in the darkness and sorrow of ignorance and sin. We cannot be the members of that Kingdom, to bring in which Christ died, if we do not seek, in the spirit of Jesus, to extend it over all the world, and over life in all its aspects and interests, while at the same time we limit not our thoughts to earth, but seek to be made fit, and to make others fit, for member- ship in that Eternal Kingdom, in which alone man's permanent good can be found.8
1 W. G. Jordan, Prophetic Ideas and Ideals, 297. s W. L. Walker, The Cross and the Kingdom, 279.
4o6 THE CITY WITHOUT WALLS
II.
The Security of the City.
" I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about."
The metaphor is that of an army or a company of travellers spending the night in a place infested with beasts of prey. The halt is made where fuel is easily procurable, and there a circle of fires is drawn round the encampment. Away in the outer darkness hungry baffled forms may be seen moving to and fro, but they dare not venture nigh. A ring of flame is a wall of salvation.