2. It is a conquering kingdom. — " Magna est Veritas et praevalet." Like the magnificent palace of the Incas of Cuzco, the ancient imperial city of Peru, whose ponderous stones were united by seams of melted gold, the whole social fabric is cemented by this pure and durable element, without which the noble * Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olives ( Works, xviii. 440).
3i6 THE KINGDOM OF TRUTH
structure .would soon totter to its fall. Falsehood makes war with God's grAndest attribute, as manifested in heaven and earth, but this attribute must ultimately triumph to vindicate the glory of His reign.
Truth, crush 'd to earth, shall rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers: While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies amid his worshippers.
^ Many moral victories that we want to see won in the world can be won only when we are gone ; but let us make our contribu- tion, and others will carry on the struggle. Captain Urquhart, dying in the Battle of Atbara, in the Soudan, said to the men who were attending him, "Never mind me, lads, go on!" Inspired with the worth of the cause and the importance of his army's victory, he could forget his pain and give up his life, and tell the others to go on. We have a more important battle' to fight — we must carry on the war of God against all wrong — and every soldier that falls must inspire the others to go on.^
3. Its progress is secured by sacrifice. — Christ's throne is a Cross. The throne of this king was not like that of Solomon, with its golden lions and ivory steps; not like the jewelled throne of Byzantium, or the peacock throne of the Moguls. It was the throne of sorrow ; it was the throne of awful self-sacrifice. " By this conquer" gleamed around that Cross in the vision of Constantine ; and it was before this implement of a slave's shame and a murderer's punishment, that the eagles of ancient, the dragons of later Eome gave way. It was before this Cross, woven on the Labarum, that the Pagan armies of Maxentius were driven into the panic which Eaphael has so grandly pictured in his Battle of the Milvian Bridge.
^ When upon one occasion the Emperor Justinian was about to surrender to the clamorous claims and the harsh and violent demands of the mob, his wife Theodora is represented to have said to him that it was better to meet and go down to death as the avowed ruler of all than purchase life for a little while by yielding to the unworthy exactions of the unrighteous few ; and empire, she tells him, "is the best winding-sheet." Empire, universal empire, throughout all the world, throughout all the ages, is the winding-sheet of Jesus Christ. Victorious iu the wilderness, victorious in Gethsemane, before that worldly-minded
' T. R. Williams, God's Open Door, 56.
ST. JOHN XVIII. Z7. 38 317
Governor in the judgment hall, victorious on the Cross, because His eye looked not upon the unworthy demands of the immediate occasion, but upon the everlasting years, upon all future times, and wrapped around in the winding-sheet of empire does He die.^
IL
The King of Truth.
1. Jesus claimed Kingship. — Pilate asked our Lord plainly, " Art thou a King ? " Jesus answered, " Thou sayest it," an expression which in Oriental language was equivalent to an affirmative, " Yes, I am what thou sayest. " But Christ took no place or rank among the acknowledged world-kings. All forms of world-dominion He refused. Throughout His life He repressed every attempt to gain for Him an earthly royalty, even as at the beginning of His ministry He repelled the devil's offer of the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them. The only royal robe He ever wore was the scarlet robe of mockery and insult ; the only crown that ever encircled His brow was the crown of suffering and plaited thorns ; the only sceptre He ever bore was the reed with which cruel hands smote Him. This does not seem kingly ; yet, could we but understand and appreciate it aright, there is a grandeur and moral splendour about it such as never circled round the marble throne, and gorgeous draperies, and jewelled crowns of any mere world-king. World-kings are kings of wealth, and genius, and lands, and people, and armies. The Christ-King, crowned with thorns, is yet the King of the suffering, King of the patient. King of the spiritual, King of souls, King of the eternal. King of truth.
2. Jesus is the embodiment of truth. — Milton says of truth: " Truth indeed came once into the world with her Divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on." Milton looks upon truth as one who comes with Christ into the world. Would it not be better to say that Christ Himself is the Embodiment of truth, for He says, " I am the truth " ? Christ's own testimony is proof of this, for three times in the Gospel according to St. John
* D. H. Greer, From Things to God, 36.
3i8 THE KINGDOM OF TRUTH
He speaks of Himself as the True One. He is the True Vine for reproduction (John xv. 1), in contrast to Israel, who proved to be the false vine (Jer. ii. 21). He is the True Bread for satisfaction (John vi. 32), in contrast to the manna in the wilderness, which only met the present necessity of the people ; and He is the True Light for illumination (John i. 9), in contrast to the false wrecker- lights of men.