\ Real righteousness — what is it ? In one word, it is surrender to the will of God. This is the peculiarity of the righteousness which is evangelical. It is from within : it is life : it is God in the soul of man : it is the life of the spirit. It is not a creed learned by heart ; it is not a set of habits acquired ; it is not a circle of customs scrupulously observed. It is not a righteousness done, but an infinite yearning after a righteousness which is
ROMANS XIV. 17 447
ever doing. It is not a self-satisfaction wliich numbers up its performances, but an infinite humility which reckons its best performances as nothing.
This righteousness can set forms at nought, neglecting them. It can afford to make nothing of them. Christ's disciples neglected the observance of the very honoured custom of washing the hands when they ate bread. Consider what might have been urged : This is an old time-honoured observance. You owe respect to constituted authorities. Who are you that presumptu- ously set yourselves up against the customs of your Church and country? Such things were said. But the disciples heeded them not, and Christ supported them in their neglect.
Let us understand this. Doubtless it is a duty to comply with customs, social and ecclesiastical. A man who sets them at defiance is a man of presumptuous spirit. But there are periods when the forms of society become thoroughly false. Then the strong man breaks through the cobwebs of etiquette, asserting the real courtesies of the heart. And there are times when priests and parties multiply observances till life is trammelled, and make things essential which are not essential. Then it becomes a duty, if we would imitate Christ, to assert Christian liberty, and to refuse to be bound by the cry of custom, modesty, or constituted authority.^
With eager heart and will on fire, I fought to win my great desire; "Peace shall be mine," I said; but life Grew bitter in the weary strife.
My soul was tired, and my pride Was wounded deep: to Heaven I cried, " God grant me peace or I must die " ; The dumb stars glittered no reply.
Broken at last, I bowed my head, Forgetting all myself, and said, " Whatever comes. His will be done " ; And in that moment peace was won.^
The Kingdom of God within us is rightness with God, and from that rightness with God comes right dealing with our fellow - men. Not carping criticism, not fault-finding and intolerance,
1 F. W. Robertson. 2 Heury Van Dyke.
448 A DEFINITION OF THE KINGDOM
but righteousness and just dealing, should be the characteristio of the citizens of the Kingdom.
Eighteousness is a term of comprehensive scope. It comprisea honesty, truthfulness, sincerity — all the elements which combine to form uprightness and frankness and nobility of character. Eighteousness is straightforward in intellectual matters as well as in practical. Eighteousness respects the feelings, the affections, the character of others as well as their property. Eighteousness is therefore temperate, is pure, is chivalrous. Eighteousness pays deference to enemies as well as to friends. It is scrupulously careful not to misrepresent, not to depreciate, not to wrong in any way an antagonist — whether a personal or a religious antagonist.
^ Can no one stop the din that profanes the grave of Eobert Burns ? Has no one the heart to hear the " inhabitant below " or to understand his voice ? Of all perverse destinies with which earth could pei'plex his fame, did it ever visit his imagination that crowds of rhetorical men would go about in never-ending floods of eloquence to prove his life a great moral victory and triumph ? Did he ever foresee that every after-dinner orator who wished to show what a flexible thing advanced Christianity can be, would harp upon the passages that saddened his own thoughtful hours, as proofs of what may comport with high moral and Christian excellency ? Shame upon them that are so destitute of love for Burns, that have so little sympathy with the pathos of his own view of his own life, as not to understand they are to let that alone ! Why cannot they let it alone ? Let them celebrate his genius, if it needs to be celebrated ; let them celebrate his honest manhood — a great deal too straightforward, I will be bold to say, to tolerate the despicable sophistry that is spent on his career — let them dwell on the undying glow he has shed into Scottish minds and hearts and homes and lives and history ; and, for the rest, let it alone. But if they will not, on themselves be the shame.
A curse upon the clown and knave That will not let his ashes rest.^
ii. Peace.
1. Having got right with God, being joined to God, and purified in the most secret place, we shall then discover the second char-
^ Principal Rainy, Church of Scotland, 159.
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acteristic of the Kingdom, the possession of an abiding peace. The Kingdom of God is peace in the Holy Ghost, peace in that secret place where only God and we meet. There shall be a holy quietude, an unbroken peace in our innermost self. In our hearts there shall be a Sabbath restfulness all the year round. There Bhall be all the sweet stillness of a June noontide in our souls. We shall be calm there, where we meet with God ! That place is for many of us a place of great unrest. The last place into which many of us would go for peace would be into the secret heart where we meet alone with God. It is the place above all others where there rages a storm. We have to be righted with God before we can look upon Him with sweet and calm delight. But when we are united to Him, joined to Him in right relationship, then there comes to us the gift of His peace. " My peace I give unto you"; receiving My life you shall receive My peace, the same serenity in danger, the same equanimity in troublous surroundings, the same freedom from anxious care, " My peace ! "