i. But did Christ's teaching as to human progress actually follow the lines just indicated ? It did. In Ml 5^' He identihed His position in history and His work with the essentially moral nature, and with the cause and the evolution of the progress of the individual and social life of humanity. That in the Law and the Prophets which had supreme interest and value for Him, was the nature and the extent of the revelation they contained of the will and purpose of God with reference to the moral relations between God and men and between one man and another, and with reference to the historical development of human destiny. He saw that this revelation was very incomplete and imperfect. And in strict accordance with the Law of Continuity, which is one of the greatest laws of evolution and of human progress. He symp.a- thetically put Himself and His work in direct organic relations with it, in order to complete and perfect the revelation of the Divine will and pur- pose to mankind, and in order so to mediate, by means of His moral power, the moral relations of men to God and to one another, that the Divine will and purpose would eventually attain to full and universal realization in their life and destiny. And so, when He said He had come not to desti'oy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil. He must have had the thought in His mind that the ful- filling in question, and His task in achieving it, would be continued after the work of His earthly ministry was done. In Mt 6''- ^" His mind is to be seen moving within the order of the same ideas and facts : ' Our P'ather which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.' These words of prayer, as Christ understood them, are rooted in the truth of the moral nature of God and of man, and of the moral relations of God to men, and of men to Him and to each other. They imply that the sphere of the direct and inward moi'al relations of men to God and to one another in Him is the essential domain of God's Kingdom on the earth. They imply that the Kingdom of God on earth is predestined to arrive at universal realization in the individual and social life of man- kind, and that pervasively, so that the Divine Avill and purpose will be manifested in all the external forms of man's existence and activities. They im- ply that this consummation will be reached by a progressive process of historical development ; for the Kingdom of God is an order of things that is coming. And they imply that the Fatherhood of (xod and the brotherhood of man will be the supreme governmental principles in the perfected conditions of human existence, Avhicli Christ hoped would be ushered in in answer to His prayer.
But these were not the only forms in which Christ expressed His great and rich order of ideas as to human progress. Man's progress is evolved in the course of his history, and nothing is more wonderful or beautiful than the parabolic forms
in which Christ embodied His ideas as to the various phases that human progress assumes in the history of its evolution. (1) The gradual realization of God's will and purpose in the lives of men as individuals is everywhere and always the basis of moral progress in the social life and history of humanity ; and therefore our Lord — no doubt designedly — illustrated the evolution of the Kingdom of God in its relation to the indi\ idual's heart and life in His hrst parable, that of the Sower (Mt Vi^-^- 1^--^).— (2) The progressive realiza- tion of the will and purpose of God in the moral relations of men to Him and to one another in the various social forms and manifestations of life may be conceived as a fact, which indeed it is, without taking into consideration the entanglements and dangers in which the process is involved from the existence in the world of moral evil. As so con- ceived, the evolution of man's moral progress is destined gradually and surely to attain to complete and manifest realization in the Kingdom of God. It was from this point of view that our Lord illus- trated His ideas of human progress in His parable of the Seed Growing Secretly (Mk 4-«-^«).— (3) But the progressive fulfilment of God's will and purpose in the history of man's social life and destiny may also be conceived as a process of historical evolu- tion, and as actually entangled and endangered, which is the case, by the presence and develop- ments of moral evil in the individual and social life of men. As thus conceived, then, the history of man's social progress towards the perfect and universal realization of God's will and purpose has the character of a conflict between moral good and moral evil. But this conflict, at every stage and in every section of its history, is presided over by the moral government of God, and is certain under His judgment to issue in a final crisis in which evil will be entirely and for ever separated from good, and in which righteousness will reign uni- versally in the relations of men to God and to one another in His Kingdom. P'rom these points of view also our Lord contemplated the evolution of human progress ; and He so couched His ideas on the subject in His parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Mt IS--'-^''-^'-^^).— (4) Again, the history of man's moral progress starts from a very small and sinii)le beginning, and eventually develops into a result of vast dimensions and great complexity. This fact as to man's progress our Lord likewise fully realized, and He expressed His sense of its truth and value in His parable of the Mustard-seed (Mt J331. 3j) — (5) Finally, the end of moral progress in the life and history of humanity will be a destiny in which everj' department of its individual and social life, external as Avell as internal, will be inter- penetrated and regulated by the will and purpose of God as perfectly realized and manifested in a universal and established order of righteousness and love. Could it be anything else than this that our Lord meant by His parable of the Leaven and the three measures of meal? (Mt LS'*'').