Say not, the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain.
The enemy faints not, nor faileth.
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed, Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers.
And, but for you, possess the field.
228 THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD
For while the tired waves, vaiuly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, tlooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, But westward, look, the laud is bright.*
IL
The King.
1. The true Theocracy is reached when the kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of the Lord. The advance of that Kingdom of Ciod is by the increasing recognition of the truth, the truth of God and the truth of humanity as in Christ, sin and evil piissing away as the mind of Christ possesses the spirit of man.
We identify Christ with the Church. But the " Kingdom " and the '* Church " are not opposing, but complementary, terms in their New Testament meaning. We have to restore to the Church the empire assigned to it by Christ, the empire that knows no frontier. The Church must not be simply an agency of the Kangdom, but must be completely identified with it And let the Church stand for the Kingdom, let the Church stand for what Christ stands for, let the Church be identified with Christ's purpose and passion, want what He wants, yearn for what He yeai'ns, the conquest of the world, of all the kingdoms of the world, let the Church consume with this passion, let the supremacies be supreme, and there will be an end of sectarian strife, denomina- tional rivalries, and ecclesiastical competition, and the one Holy Catholic Church will stand for the complete realization of the Kingdom of God upon earth.
^] A good many are asking such revolutionary questions even now [Is the Chm'ch of any use ; were it not well that it perished that Christianity might the better thrive ?], and it is foolish for Churchmen simply to be shocked and to characterize them as profane. The Church is only a means to an end ; it is good only
1 A. H. Clough.
REVELATION xi. 15 229
80 far as it is Christian. There is no merit or profit in more ecclesiasticisin. Whatever reveals the true Chiist is of value and will live. Whatever hides Christ, be it pope, priest or presbyter, sacraments or ecclesiastical misrule, is pernicious, and must pass away ; but we may hope that there will always be enough of Christ's spirit in the society which bears His name to keep it from becoming utterly savourless and to bring about such reforms as may be necessary to make it serve the end for which it was instituted. Should this hope be disappointed, then the visible Church, as we know it, must and will pass away, leaving the spirit of Christ free room to make a new experiment, under happier auspices, at self-realization. To be enthusiastic about the Church in its present condition is impossible ; to hope for its future is not impossible, but if it were, there is no cause for despair. Christ will ever remain the same yesterday, to-day and for ever, and the kingdom of God will remain a kingdom that cannot be movcd.^
2. We profess to believe, as Christians, in the reality of tlie Divine Kingdom. Faith makes ils members of it, and brings us into it. We share in its strength and freedom because we own Christ as Lord and Saviour. Our place is therefore the index to our duty. We cannot be subjects of so vast a realm without at the same time retaining the consciousness of our responsibility to Him who has placed us where we are, and to those who are not where we are. This world of sin can never be changed into a world of holiness except through the changed histories of those who call themselves by Christ's name. The only limit, therefore, we can place on the range of the gospel of Christ is that which is offered by the final satisfaction of the human race. Christ declared Himself not the Saviour of a people or the Deliverer of any particular land, but the Son of Man, bom for humanity, living and dying for them.
Christ as King must oust every usurper. The gospel comes into collision — it puts itself purposely in collision — with all opposing forces, lays down the most stringent regulations for human life and human peace. It lays down the most inspiring hopes for the human heart, and its very incredibilities are the things that are winning the credence of human minds everywhere. It is the standing miracle of history, and there is nothing that * A. B, Bruce, Tlie Kingdom of Ood.
230 THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD
more conclusively proves its Divineness than what we call its success, although the word success is not a word to be used in this connexion. No, we have not to think of success. Christ did not send forth successful men ; He only sent forth witnesses. We have nothing whatever to do with the success of the gospel of Jesus Christ ; we are merely to proclaim ; we have merely to witness to the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have nothing to do with the establishment of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ ; all we have to do with is the proclamation of it.