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THE KINGDOM OF GOD

"Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.”—MARK iv. II.

WHERE the other evangelists have "the kingdom of God," Matthew always has "the kingdom of heaven," and unfortunately that phrase has been often taken as equivalent to heaven-the future state of the blessed. The phrase kingdom of heaven having been thus misinterpreted, the same false meaning has been carried over to the parallel expression, the kingdom of God; and so Christ's idea has been utterly perverted. There are indeed a few passages where the phrase lends itself to this interpretation, but even these present heaven as the carrying to its final issue of the kingdom of God set up on earth, and in the vast majority of instances it is this reign of God here and now which is evidently in his mind—“ Behold the kingdom of God is within you," or as it is in the Revised Version, "among you."

1 If, as some contend, Jesus expected a heavenly kingdom to be established on earth by supernatural means a few years after his death, ushering in the final judgment and the saints' everlasting rest, the two interpretations above contrasted may be in a measure harmonized. That much may be said in favour of this view cannot be denied, but the subject is too wide for discussion here, and would not appreciably affect the main drift of the

But by the unhappy mistake just mentioned, men's eyes have been turned from the near to the distant, from the present to the future, from the practical to the speculative. They have escaped from worldliness only to fall into what Sydney Smith used to call " other-worldliness." They have missed Christ's idea of the kingdom of God altogether. At least this was generally so until within quite recent years. Perhaps we ought not to be much surprised at this. Christ says in our text that the kingdom of God is a mystery, i.e., something hidden from the vulgar gaze, revealed only to the initiated. It cometh not with observation. He speaks to his disciples-"To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God," not to them that are without; and, as we have seen, it has not been clearly understood by most of those within, not even by the first disciples in their early days, as it is evident from the whole tenour of their conversation. And yet, surely, it is of the highest importance that we should apprehend it rightly, for it occupies the most prominent position in the doctrine of Christ and his apostles.

I. To this prominence of the kingdom of God in the gospel message, let me first direct your attention. The kingdom of God, however we understand the words, was the alpha and omega of Christ's teaching. The establishment of it was the very object of his

discourse. In such passages as Matt. xiii. 44 and 45, Luke xiii. 19 and 21, "the kingdom of God seems to be used by metonymy for the teaching that contains the secret of the kingdom and lays the foundation of it, but these verses do not contradict the present author's interpretation of the phrase. Compare Mark x. 15, Luke xviii. 17.

coming, the final purpose of his life, death, and resurrection. John the Baptist prepared his way with the message, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." As John foretold, so Jesus fulfilled. "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the kingdom of God." That was his mission. So he unfolds it in the Sermon on the Mount, with which his ministry commenced. He opened his mouth and taught them saying, "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." He proceeded to lay down the laws of his kingdom. Thus instructed, his disciples were sent forth with the charge," go ye and preach the kingdom of God." As it was to be the subject of their preaching, so also of their prayers, When ye pray say, Thy kingdom come." Our Lord in the course of his ministry uttered about thirty parables. Fully half of these are parables of the kingdom, and the kingdom appears frequently in his other addresses. So prominent was this idea in his teaching that the charge brought against him before Pilate was that he sought to establish a new kingdom subversive of Cæsar's. He does not deny it. Only his kingdom was to be "not of this world," i.e., not ordered according to the ideas and maxims of this world. Still, here and now it was to be. "Verily I say unto you there be some standing here that shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." Surely we must have read our bibles very blindly if we have not perceived that the great thing Christ came for was to set up a kingdom. As the gospels, so likewise the Acts and the epistles contain many allusions to it.

But when we turn from the New Testament to the writings and preachings of to-day, the kingdom of God seems almost to have vanished. Throughout one half of Christendom we hear of nothing but the Church. Whether it be Greek, Roman, or Anglican, it is still "the Church"; "the Church"; "the Church." "Listen to the Church"; "Obey the Church " ; "Receive the Sacraments of the Church"; "Abide within the Church"; "Defend the Church." Throughout the other half (or the greater part of it) it is " the Gospel " that has stepped into the place of the kingdom of God. "Believe the Gospel"; preach the Gospel "; preserve, maintain, stand up for the Gospel." Now the Gospel that Christ preached was the Gospel of the kingdom of God: but the gospel of the stricter evangelical churches may be described rather as the gospel of personal salvation. That may be a very great and glorious thing, though unhappily as often preached it is a somewhat narrow, selfish thing. At best, it is not Christ's Gospel of the kingdom of God.

II. Now what is that? It is time that we endeavoured to get a clear idea of it. The phrase kingdom of God belongs to the New Testament, but the idea begins to take shape in the Old. It stands over against the idea of the great world-kingdoms of which the children of Israel had had such bitter experience. I remember seeing in one of the exhibitions of the Royal Academy a painting by Goodall, depicting the Israelites toiling for the Pharaohs. To a huge block of stone which was being drawn from the quarry ropes were attached,

and at these ropes a hundred or more unhappy wretches were straining. Here and there one stumbled and was trampled under the feet of the others, while on the naked backs of all the overseer's lash was mercilessly laid. It was an illustration of the grinding tyranny, the horrid cruelty of those old-world kingdoms, Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian Persian, whose only rule was the rule of despotic force; whose only aim, the aggrandisement of the monarch and the extension of his power wider, ever wider to the ends of the earth. We gaze wonderingly, sometimes, perhaps, admiringly, on the ruins of their vast palaces and temples. But the foundations of those edifices were laid in the blood and lives of men. In those kingdoms the king was everything, the subject, nothing. No justice for him, no mercy, no brotherhood. But deliverance was coming through the kingdom of God.

The prophet Daniel in his vision sees these vast empires breaking up one after the other, to make room for the throne of the Ancient of Days, and His kingdom of everlasting righteousness. Those were kingdoms of the earth, but this was to be the kingdom of heaven. They were kingdoms of man, this the kingdom of God. It had been to some extent foreshadowed in the commonwealth of Israel. There, nominally at least, God ruled. The titular king was supposed to be God's representative, and there, in some measure, was a rule of righteousness, just laws, merciful provision for the poor, brotherhood proclaimed among the seed of Abraham. But it was not the kingdom of God as Christ preached it, only a preparation; for it was limited to a particular

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