^ He who does not desire the salvation of those who are his own kith and kin — " how dwelleth the love of God in him ? " Christianity is expansive, it makes the bosom glow with love to all that God has made ; but, at the same time, our love does not expand so as to lose force ; and this is seen when it turns its power towards those who are nearest home. Are our neighbours unsaved ? Let us lay them on our heart and cease not to plead till they are in Christ. Think much of the heathen; by all means regard India and China, and the like, but do not forget Newington Butts, and Lambeth, and Southwark. Next to our homes let our neighbourhoods be considered, and then our country, for all Englishmen are akin. Wherever we wander we are proud of our common country, and, like the Eomans of old, we are somewhat quick to make known our citizenship ; therefore,
^ Lord Houghton, lAfe^ ii. 492.
ROMANS IX. 3 i8i
let us never cease to plead for this beloved island and our kinsmen according to the flesh. For his countrymen St. Paul prayed ; and never let us bear within our bones a soul so deaf as to forget our native land.^
(3) Christian patriotism recognizes that the worst enemies of a people are their sins. Christ would have said of countries what St. Paul said of himself, " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness." To the average Jew the great enemy was Eome, for Kome had enslaved Palestine. To the average Jew the first task of a true patriot was to hurl defiance at that intruding power. It is very significant and very strange that no such defiance fell from the lips of Jesus. How men would have hailed Him had He cried, " Woe unto you, ye Komans ! " With His gifts and His eloquence and His Davidic birth, He would have been the hero of the people. But He never cried, " Woe unto you, ye Romans " ; He cried, " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees." That, too, was the cry of a patriot, but it brought the patriot to Calvary. For it means that in the eyes of Jesus Christ there are worse enemies than spears and swords ; there are national foes that can be far more deadly than the battalions of an invading army. In the long-run, if any nation perishes, it is not another's guns, it is its own sins, that ruin it. Christ taught that by His life. Christ sealed that by His death.
It is not to be thought of that the Flood Of British freedom, which, to the open sea Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity Hath flowed, " with pomp of waters, unwithstood," Roused though it be full often to a mood Which spurns the check of salutary bands, That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands Should perish ; and to evil and to good Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung Armoury of the invincible Knights of old: We must be free or die, who speak the tongue That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold Which Milton held. — In every thing we are sprung Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold.^
^ Ruskin had to my mind one distinguishing mark of the true * 0. H. Spurgeon. • Wordsworth.
i82 ANATHEMA FROM CHRIST
prophet — that he was no patriot. He was concerned with human rather than with national welfare. I am not decrying the force of patriotism, or the part it plays in the development of the human race. But there is a nobler enthusiasm than even the enthusiasm for race and nation ; because the triumph of patriotism must necessarily carry with it the quenching of the aspirations of other nations, their defeat and their discomfiture. It is only tyranny on a larger scale. Ruskin no doubt miscalculated and misunderstood the nature of his countrymen, the insularity and she isolation which mark their conquering path. But no one who cares for the larger hopes of humanity can hope or dream that the end is to be limited by national greatness. That is not a popular vision in England, unless it is accompanied by a proviso that the seat of the federated government of the world shall be in Loudon, and that English shall be the language of the human race. But Ruskin judged other nations not according to their resemblance to our own race, but by their virtue and aobility.^
Once Babylon, by beauty tenanted
In pleasure palaces and walks of pride, Like a great scarlet flower reared her head,
Drank in the sun and laughed and sinned and died.'
ni.
The Spirit of the Preacher.
Let us now look at the text as it manifests the true spirit of the preacher.
1. St. Paul the Preacher. — Some one has pointed out the striking contrast between the dominant interest with which St. Paul says, " I must also see Rome," and that which the words would ordinarily reveal. The Apostle was eager to visit the imperial city only because he was eager to preach there also the Grospel of Christ. Every other ambition of his life had passed into this. All the waters of his soul had gathered themselves into one mighty flood to be poured through the narrows of this ^single purpose : " To preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ ; and to make all men see what is the dispensation