3. It is " not by might" That is a word of very comprehen- sive meaning. Sometimes it denotes an army, and is significant of brute force, of coercion, of sheer repression. In all Christian work force is no remedy. And sometimes it denotes wealth, and
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is significant of material substance, of buying power, bribing power, the carnal energies by which men are illicitly enticed and enslaved. Not by these means can the Kingdom be advanced. And sometimes it denotes valour, and is significant of the large energies of heart and will. And it is not by the unconfirmed courage of men that the work of the Lord is to be done. " Nor by power." This is surely suggestive of " capacity." It is a word which is elsewhere translated "lizard," probably as signifying stealth. It is also translated " chameleon," denoting adaptability, smartness, sharpness, the " quick-change " type of character. It was to this particular class that our Lord referred when He said : " I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent."
(1) The worship of physical force is anything but an obsolete idolatry. People of all classes in society crowd in admiration round the man with the strong arm. A war is the unfailing specific for all the world's diseases. Is anything wrong anywhere ? War will set it right. It is well for us, however, to remember that the man who declared that Providence was on the side of the big battalions died defeated, a prisoner and an exile. Think of the equipment of the early Church in the Upper Room. How it would have excited the ridicule of military men of the world ! This unarmed, undrilled company going to lead an attack upon the powers of darkness ! But which would really be the more absurd — the sneer of the soldier, or the faith of the Apostles ?
Tj In the course of a letter to a friend in Glasgow, a professor of the University of Copenhagen writes : " Indeed the war is terrible, but we understand that the mortal struggle cannot finish before the Germans have learned that physical force, as Professor T. A. Fleming says, is in the long run impotent unless backed by those spiritual forces which spring only from loyalty to the ever- lasting difference between right and wrong." l
TI There are two opposite ways of trying to promote the triumph of good over evil. One way is that followed by the best men, from Buddha in India and Jesus in Palestine, down to the Non-Eesisters of our own time. It is, to seek to see the truth of things clearly, to speak it out fearlessly, and to endeavour to act up to it, leaving it to influence others as the rain and sunshine act upon the plants. The influence of men who live in that way 1 Glasgow Herald, Dec. 31, 1914.
436 THE SUPREMACY OF THE SPIRITUAL
spreads from land to land and from age to age. But there is another plan, much more often tried, which consists in making up one's mind what other people should do, and then using physical violence if necessary to make them do it. People who act like that — Ahab, Attila, Csesar, Napoleon, and the Governments and militarists of to-day — influence people as long as they can reach them, and even longer ; but the effect that lives after them and spreads furthest, is a bad one, inflaming men's hearts with anger, with patriotism, and with malice. These two lines of conduct are contrary the one to the other, for you cannot persuade a man while he thinks you wish to hit or coerce him.1
(2) Another modern symbol of power is money. The worship of wealth was never such a popular faith as it is to-day. And the power of money in Christian work is not to be despised. All honour to the rich men who have given the Saviour their wealth because they had first given Him their hearts; who have remembered their duties as stewards responsible to an Almighty Master ; who have spent their money in relieving the wants of the least of the Lord's brethren, instead of wasting it on personal luxury, or hoarding it in useless avarice. Yet, after all, money is a broken reed in Christian work. Money may buy place and authority in religious organizations, but it cannot buy spiritual power.
Tf If a thing was according to the need of man and the will of God, it had to be done, and Paton laughed at the idea that considerations of money should stand in the way of its accomplish- ment. " We must never lose the battle for lack of powder and shot," he would say. But in itself money was nothing to him. It was kept in its proper place as means and not end. " Money I care not for," he writes to Mr. Henry Ollard, "save as all influence and all agencies it can bring are used unreservedly and sacredly for the winning of the world to God and holiness." 2
T| We live in a world where visible and tangible things exist, to which, on the immaterial side, there are spiritual corre- spondences. One of these things is money. The higher order of people are apt to say there are better things than money ; that there is the wealth of aspiration, of noble purpose, of generous and liberal sympathies, of good health and right feeling. And this is deeply true ; and if one were to choose from financial riches on the one side, and spiritual riches on the other, he who would choose