^ Bishop Fraser. * F. W. Robertson, Life and Letters, 427.
* Tenuyson, Akbar's Dream.
442 A DEFINITION OF THE KINGDOM
^ The holy Church of the future, the Church of the free and equal, shall bless every progress of the Spirit of truth, and identify itself with the life of humanity ; it shall have neither Pope nor laity, but all shall be believers, all priests with different offices. And on the transformation of the corrupt aristocratic church of to-day into this renewed popular church of the future, depends, I will not say the solution — that is not in the power of man — but the mode, more or less violent, more or less dangerous, of the solution of the religious question.^
God asks not, " To which sect did he belong ? " But "Did he love the right and hate the wrong ?"''^
(4) All mles of conduct for the Christian, all questions as to legitimate amusements and recreations, come under the same category. These things are not the Kingdom of God. A disciplinary rule, as such — that is, a disciplinary rule which begins and ends by being a disciplinary rule — is likely to be a hollow and worthless observance. It would not be untrue to add that a disciplinary rule which begins and ends as a disci- plinary rule — a fetter outside and irksome to the heart — may do, and often has done, more harm than good. It does harm to the man himself, because it deceives him, and makes him seem to find holiness, where holiness is not. It does harm to those who are around him, because it does not deceive them: because they recognize, and recoil from, an ideal of Christian service which they know to be unreal.
^ The Bible has no express teaching on the question of amusements. It furnishes us with no list of duties or pleasures to which its ethics and principles may be applied. This has been a disappointment to those who seek in its pages for rules to guide them in every possible contingency. It is not a directory of moral details. Christianity is a temper, a spirit, a Divine motiv« and law, which is meant to pervade and inspire every part of our life, and not a code of minute regulations by conformity to which we shall be enabled to keep ourselves safe amid surrounding dangers. It says nothing about the callings we should pursue, except to bid us be faithful in the one we have chosen. It does not declare that one calling is more dignified than another, or that there are duties that are worthy and noble and duties that
^ Bishop Stubbs.
' zi Little Book of Eastern Wisdom, 69.
ROMANS XIV. 17 443
are common and unclean. It draws no distinction between trades and occupations and engagements, marking some as helpful and others as hurtful. It simply insists that whatever we do we shall do it to the glory of God, and it leaves it to our conscience and common sense to discover whether our conduct and work tend to glorify God or not.^
^ The simple truth is that all these are matters affecting the outward man, the external life. They concern the man's hands but may in no manner concern his heart. A man is not necessarily good because he wears a crucifix, and a man is not necessarily good because he abstains from wearing one. I have heard men declaim against the crucifix who did not possess the spirit of the cross, and their declamation was an offence. A man is not necessarily a Christian because he goes to the theatre ; and certainly a man is not necessarily a Christian because he keeps away. You feel that these considerations touch only the surface of the life. They are no indication of the quality and substance of the inner and secret being. And so St. Paul declares that the Kingdom of God is not " eating and drinking " ; it is not to be determined by one or two external acts, in which you participate or from which you abstain.^
She stood before a chosen few, With modest air and eyes of blue ; A gentle creature in whose face Were mingled tenderness and grace.
"You wish to join our fold," they said; " Do you believe in all that's read From ritual and written creed, Essential to our human need ? "
A troubled look was in her eyes ; She answered, as in vague surprise. As thougli the sense to her were dim: "I only strive to follow Him."
They knew her life ; how, oft she stood, Sweet in her guileless maidenhood. By dying bed, in hovel lone. Whose sorrow she had made her own.
' W. Watson, A Young Man's Ideal, 152. » J. H. Jowett.
444 A DEFINITION OF THE KINGDOM
Oft had her voice in prayer been heard, Sweet as the voice of singing bird ; Her hand been open in distress ; Her joy to brighten and to bless.
Yet still she answered when they sought To know her inmost earnest thought, With look as of the seraphim, " I only strive to follow Him."
Creeds change as ages come and go; We see by faith, but little know: Perchance the sense was not so dim To her who "strove to follow Him."^