^ Are we not strangers here ? Is it not strange that we so often meet and part without a word of our home, or the way to it, or our advance toward it ? ^
2. Citizenship implies honour and privilege. Both in Eome and in its colonies the privileges of citizenship were great, and greatly prized. Eome was the centre and mistress of the civilized
^ F. D. Huntingdon, Christ in the Christian Year, 243. ^ Archbishop Leighton.
38o CITIZENSHIP IN HEAVEN
world. The Koman citizen was not only safe wherever he went, but honoured and admired. He held himself to be the equal of tributary princes and kings, if not their superior. He was eligible for the highest offices of the State. He had a voice in the election of the ministers and rulers of the Commonwealth, even up to the godlike Imperator himself. He was exempted from many burdens, taxes, benevolences, exactions, imposed on the subject races. He could neither be scourged uncondemned nor examined by torture. Even if found guilty of the foulest crime, he could no more be crucified than an Englishman could be impaled ; while, if he were cast in any civil suit, he had a right of appeal to Caesar. If he were a man of any energy and intelligence, he had boundless opportunities of acquiring wealth ; if he were poor and indolent, bread and games were provided for him at the public expense, baths were built for him, and theatres ; the public gardens and walks were open to him; he might enrol himself among the clients, and so secure the protection, of some wealthy and powerful noble ; he could take his share in the imperial doles and largesses, which were of constant recurrence. All this he might do and claim, not as a favour, but as a right, simply because he was a citizen.
What St. Paul virtually says to the Christian citizens of Philippi is : " You possess, and are proud to possess, the citizen- ship of Eome ; but, remember, you have a still higher and nobler citizenship. Heaven is your true home, the Kingdom of Heaven your true commonwealth, the spirit of heaven your true spirit. You are members of that great spiritual and eternal Kingdom of which Christ is Imperator and Lord. And this citizenship confers on you both rights and duties — rights of access and appeal to the heavenly King, exemption not from base punishments alone, but also from base and degrading lusts. You are guarded from the malice and violence of the principalities and powers of evil and of an evil world. You are fed and cherished by the bounty and grace of the King eternal, immortal, invisible. You owe Him allegiance therefore, and a constant heartfelt service. Take pride in Him, then, and in the ties that bind you to Him. Fight for your privileges and immunities ; play the man ; prove yourselves good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Assert and maintain your spiritual freedom. Subordinate your private interests to the public wel-
PHILIPPIANS III. 20, 21 381
fare. Labour to extend the borders of the Divine Kingdom. Let this heavenly citizenship be more and dearer to you than the civic rights and exemptions in which you are wont to boast."
^ On a cold, windy day in November, a gentleman spoke kindly to a poor Italian whom he had often passed without a word. Seeing him shiver, he said something about the dreadful English climate, which to a son of the sunny south must have seemed terribly cruel that day. But to his surprise the man looked up with a smile, and in his broken English said, " Yes, yes, pritty cold ; but by-and-by ! tink of dat." He was thinking of warm skies and flowers and songs in the sunny land to which he hoped soon to return, and he little imagined how all that day and for many a day his words would ring in the Englishman's heart : " By-and-by, tink of dat." ^
3. There were three ways by which a person obtained " citizenship." The first was by lirth. If a person was born in a city, he was free to the rights and privileges which belonged to that city. He was " a citizen." Thus St. Paul said, " I was free born." And every Christian has had two births, a natural and also a spiritual birth. The second mode of becoming a " citizen " was by gift. It was a privilege, in the power of a State, then as it is now, to confer, and was sometimes conferred, in honour or in love. And thirdly it could be bought. As we read : " Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, Art thou a Eoman ? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered. With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born." By all these three privileges every Christian has got his freedom, or " citizenship." He is " born again " of water and of the Spirit. It has been purchased for him at no less a price than the blood of the Son of God. And it is bestowed upon him by the will and bounty of the King of kings.
% In Switzerland and Germany people have what they call a Heimatschein — a certificate of home. This is necessary as a passport ; without it they cannot leave their country, and would be liable at any moment to be imprisoned because unable to prove themselves members of a canton. A peasant girl was one day watching the bears at Berne, and let slip out of her hands a bag containing some homely treasures. The bag fell into the bears den, and one by one they pulled out the articles contained in it