Kingsley (C), Sermons on National Subjects, 373.
Leathes (A. S.), The Kingdom Within, 39.
Lewis (F. W.), The Unseen Life, 61.
Liddon (H. P.), Present Church Troubles^ 1.
McConnell (S. D.), Sons of God, 135.
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Newman (J. H.), Sermons on Various Occasions, 47.
Rawnsley (H. D,), Sayings of Jesus, 104.
Ridge way (C. J.), The King and His Kingdom, 11.
Stevenson (J.), in Scotch Sermons, 336.
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Trench (R. C), Sermons Preached for the Most Part in Ireland, 299.
Watkinson (W. L.), The Education of the Heart, 201
„ „ The Supreme Conquest, 189.
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lii. 156 (R. Thomas) ; Ixxiii. 43 (P. McPhail). Church Family Newspaper, Dec. 2, 1910 (H. L. Goudge). Church Times, Dec. 27, 1912 (W. C. E. Newbolt). Homiletic Review, liii. 449 (W. L. Watkinson). Preacher's Magazine, ix. 276 (G. B. F. Hallock). Record, Nov. 13, 1908 (C. J. Procter). Sermons to Britons Abroad, 256.
The Kingdom that is Within.
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you. — Luke xvii. 20, 21.
1. " The kingdom of God is within you." That would indeed be a most pregnant and decisive utterance, if we could be sure that our Lord meant it so. Unfortunately we cannot take it with the unhesitating simplicity of the author of the Imitation of Christy because as the words stand in the Greek they are susceptible of another rendering. The Eevised Version has in the margin, " The kingdom of God is in the midst of you." As far as the grammar is concerned, either translation is equally tenable, and the choice between them turns upon considerations which are fairly well balanced. The immediate context favours " in the midst of you," for our Lord was speaking to the Pharisees who expected the Kingdom to be ushered in with signs and portents, with pomp and circumstance. That, He said, was a fundamental error. It was the very nature of the Kingdom to come in quietness and without attracting observation. Men would not be able to point the finger at it and say " Here it comes " ; " for, behold, the kingdom of God is [already] amongst you." If we take it so, we recall at once the words of John the Baptist (John i. 26), " in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not." It is true that the two words are not identical : but they seem to be indistinguishable in meaning. In both cases the Jews overlooked the really important and crucial fact because they were looking at or looking for some- thing more conspicuous. By the singularity of his life and preach- ing John the Baptist had forced himself upon the attention of all the people, and even of the rulers. They discussed the question
w aether he could be the Expected, wholly oblivious of the fact
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that the Expected had been for thirty years domiciled among them. So again they discussed the signs of the promised Kingdom, and asked our Lord's opinion about them, in total ignorance of the fact that the Kingdom was already set up in their midst. It was undoubtedly all part of the same funda- mental and persistent error, and it was rebuked in almost identical words. " He is here " ; " it is here ; here — in the very midst of you — if you only knew it." There is no doubt that such is the common-sense interpretation of those memorable words, and as such it must always command our respectful acquiescence, if nothing more.
But there is much to be said on the other side. " The king- dom of God is within you " goes further than the other, further than the immediate occasion required ; moreover it is addressed, not to the rulers, but to mankind at large. But all that is quite in keeping with our Lord's manner. When, e.g., our Lord exclaimed (John iv. 48) " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe," He was assuredly not speaking to that simple-minded nobleman from Capernaum. Only a hopeless stupidity will go on maintaining that. He had in His mind's eye the general mass of the Galileans, who received Him because they had seen or heard of His miracles, but had no mind to accept His claims or His teachings ; He saw behind them an innumerable multitude of all nations whose attitude towards the Kingdom would be equally unspiritual and unsatisfactory ; and in the sorrow of His heart He spoke to them, as represented (for the moment) by the supplicant before Him. It is impossible to doubt that His words over and over again surpassed the scope and range of what was immediately present. We are justified there- fore in thinking it possible, and even probable, that, in answering the question of the Pharisees, He gave utterance to a saying of the widest and most lasting significance. " The kingdom of God is within you " ; i.e., its most characteristic development, its most proper and necessary manifestation, is an inward one — inward to the souls of men. In other words the Kingdom of God is a state of mind and soul which is reproduced in a multitude of individuals — a state which is characterized by the action of certain spiritual powers, by the dominance of certain moral and religious principles.