Light of men with regard to life and conduct will look forward most hopefully to new illumination. The grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ will go on doing their blessed work as the supreme reforming forces of the world.

VII

CHRIST IN THE REALM OF POLITICS

'Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in.'-ISAIAH Xxvi. 2.

WE are engaged in making men see that Christ is really Lord of all, not in some vague ideal sense, but actually; that He is supreme in every sphere of human existence. And to-day I speak of the sphere of politics. He is working at this moment to make the nations righteous, as the prophet longed that his own nation should be.

When I say that Christ is reigning, I am expressing a truth which is at once confessed and denied. Every one who believes the Bible must believe in our Lord's declaration to his disciples, 'All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth.' Every man who repeats the Creed declares that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, which means that, as the king's chief minister was placed at his right hand in Oriental courts, so Jesus Christ is the Chief Ruler in the

Kingdom of God. But the very people who acknowledge this with their lips are apt to start back when you tell them that Christ is ruling in the sphere of politics; that He is making the laws, deciding the elections, guiding the cabinet council or the parliament; that He acts through the judges and the administrators of the affairs of the realm. I have, therefore, a hard task to convince my hearers that this is true.

I will begin by a statement which may clear away many difficulties. It may be objected to me that politics are very often quite unchristian-that men engage in them from selfish motives, and conduct them with violence or favour or partisanship. If Christ is reigning, they say, why does He not at once put an end to all this and make the national life completely pure? I answer by quoting His own words. He was asked by Pilate if He was really a King? and no doubt the haughty Roman was moved half to laughter, half to scorn, to think that the peasantcriminal before him should pretend to be a King; for he thought, as many Christians now think, that, if He were King, He would exert His power at once and sweep away all that opposed Him. But His answer makes things clear. He vindicates His royalty absolutely; but He declares that it consists, not in a

force which would make His will outwardly and at once supreme, but in the convincing power of truth. 'A King! Ay, indeed; for I came into the world to bear witness to the truth; and all who are true men become My subjects.' This is the true royalty: the power to convince men and win their allegiance to the truth. This, and this alone, is the power by which Christ asserts His dominion.

It follows from this that the process is slow. If it were a question of conquest with the sword, a few sharp blows would accomplish it. But the kingdom which is not of this world (although it has its first development in the world) must make its way gradually, by the force of truth. Truth rarely asserts itself suddenly. If it did, it would very likely produce but a weak and transitory conviction. Even where it flashes suddenly on the mind, it needs to be proved by action before it fully lays hold. It comes by reason, by the force of events, by trials and disillusionings, by long experience. Its seed grows secretly, while men rise and sleep night and day, till at last it bears its fruit. And this is eminently the case with social truth, which is above all a truth of experience. Some mathematical or physical truths may be demonstrated once for all; but what belongs to man's social nature is complex and difficult to

apprehend, and needs long effort to reduce to

practice.

It is thus that we affirm that Christ reigns though His kingdom come in but slowly. The true principle makes its way, but it is a light shining in darkness, and the darkness is only by degrees expelled.

What do we mean by Politics? We mean the science of the people's good: the science which teaches how a nation may be built up to its noblest ideal; how classes within it may come to have right relations one to the other; how its laws may be, like those of Israel, laws of God because they are a reflexion of His righteousness; how in the making of these laws the interests of all classes may be recognised, and in their administration impartial justice may preside. St. John says that Jesus died for the Jewish nation; and it is not too much to say that He laid down His life for political justice, to produce not only good men but good nations. The gates which are lifted up for the King of Glory to come in, are to be opened not only to each redeemned soul, but that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

I affirm that this process of bringing in political righteousness has been going on in the past, is going on now, and is to go on in the future, till the whole social state of all the nations of mankind is thoroughly pervaded by the Spirit of Christ.