Article December 13, 1913 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from James Drummond, C. S. Mills, Kirsopp Lake, Alfred Rodman Hussey

[Western Christian Advocate]

The great idea of Jesus was the kingdom of God. He believed so firmly, so unwaveringly, in the ultimate triumph of righteousness and peace, that his vision makes the dreams of the world's greatest optimists fade into darkness by comparison. He recognized the dangers which he faced, the forces which he had to meet, the tragical mistakes and disloyalties of his followers, but without a moment's hesitation he launched his idea because he believed in "men and religion." He believed in the potency of his idea because he knew what was in man, and had a steady and sublime faith in his strength and nobility and heroism when freed from the terrible obsession of sin.

In the mind of our Master the kingdom of God was not a pleasing hope, a beautiful dream, a golden age in some faraway future, floating like a sunset-cloud on the dim horizon. It was something real, present, irresistible in its movement. He did not conceive of it as an inward state of the soul or a future state of blessed existence. It was objective, social, and universal,—a new social order in which men, recognizing themselves as children of the Father, shall likewise acknowledge their true relation to their fellows and substitute cooperation for competition, love for hatred, trust for suspicion, peace for war, and all the virtues which adorned the character of the Master for the vices which prey upon, torture, and divide humanity.

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