1 in the midst of them." " The kingdom of God is in the midst of you." 1
^ If we turn to a little-known fact in the life of Michael Faraday, the vision of the ideal Church — the true Kingdom of God — meets us once more. Faraday was an elder in an obscure sect. He was one of a little religious band which met for worship in a London alley. " In the year 1856," says one, who was once of that company, " Faraday on his own confession was put away from us. His scientific researches had, he confessed, unsettled his simple faith as a Sandemanian. The gas-fitter, the linen-draper, the butcher — fellow-members in the little company — were shocked, but stern. We prayed for Faraday every Sunday ; we asked that God would send light to his dark brain, and — I am giving you the facts — the prayers of the gas-fitter, the linen-draper, and the butcher were answered in a very marvellous way. After a separation of some months Michael Faraday, the man whom all the world delighted to honour, came back one day to the little meeting-house in Paul's-alley, and standing up before the little congregation made full confession of his error, and, with tears in his eyes, vowed that never again would he allow any conflict in his mind between science and the simple childlike faith of the Sandemanian brotherhood. Everybody wept, and a blessed peace fell upon the little meeting-house in Paul's- alley." " If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." ^
^ G. Littlemore. 2 y^
352 THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM
3. And yet it may be said that a man must be a sturdy optimist who, knowing what the actual condition of Christendom is, can still find it quite to his mind and entirely satisfactory. Satisfactory ! Actual realizations of a great ideal can never satisfy an idealist. They are satisfactory only in so far as they are signs of something better yet to be. A child's drawing may be grotesquely wrong and yet show signs of coming power — signs sufficient to awaken hope in the hearts of those who watch his progress. We must learn rightly to estimate men's " half-reasons, faint aspirings, dim struggles for truth, their poorest fallacies — all with a touch of nobleness despite their error." We must learn to acquiesce in the slow evolution of the new moral order — to under- stand that there are evenings and mornings in the days of the new creation, and that it takes an evening and a morning to make one of God's days.
There are only two ways of escape from the bitterness to which we are prone in view of these facts. One is to endeavour to " do good for its own sake " ; to find our satisfaction in the simple sense of having done our duty. So far as it goes, this is a true refuge from the misrepresentation and ingratitude of the world, and there are men of such lofty ethical temper that it seems to suffice to keep them diligent, humble, and tireless in the way of service. Nevertheless, there is a better way, to those, at least, who superadd genuine religious faith to real ethical passion. It is to bear in mind the absolute justice and the unfailing benevolence of their heavenly Master and Lord. Nothing short of this can keep all but a select few superlatively endowed ethical souls faithful and unspoiled to the end.
^ After so many graces, may I not sing with the Psalmist that " the Lord is good, that his mercy endureth for ever " ? It seems to me that if every one were to receive such favours God would be feared by none, but loved to excess ; that no one would ever commit the least wilful fault — and this through love, not fear. Yet all souls cannot be alike. It is necessary that they should differ from one another in order that each Divine Perfec- tion may receive its special honour. To me, He has given His Infinite Mercy, and it is in this ineffable mirror that I contem- plate His other attributes. Therein all appear to me radiant with Love. His Justice, even more perhaps than the rest, seems to me to be clothed with Love. What joy to think that our Lord
ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 353
is just, that is to say, that He takes our weakness into account, that He knows perfectly the frailty of our nature ! Of what, then, need I be afraid ? Will not the God of Infinite Justice, who deigns so lovingly to pardon the sins of the Prodigal Son, be also just to me " who am always with him " ? ^
ii. The Kingdom is Coming,
Though it may be without observation now, it will in the end be the observed of all observers, the admired of all admirers, the cynosure of every eye, the one glory when every other glory shall have paled ; the one name and fame which shall survive when every other shall have passed away as a noise ; the one kingdom which, itself immovable, shall behold the wreck and the ruin of every kingdom besides ; and then, in that kingdom of the Spirit, that kingdom of the truth, wherein goodness shall be the only measure of greatness, and each and all shall wear an outward beauty exactly corresponding to the inward beauty of the Christ in them or, alas ! shall put on an outward deformity corresponding to the inner unloveliness of their hearts and lives ; then, in that kingdom of the truth, all that are of the truth shall shine out as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, for Christ, who is their life, shall have appeared, and they shall appear with Him in glory.