and the cross of Christ is the shadow thrown upon the earth of the Father's inviting and welcoming love.

The glory of Christ is not the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem but the funeral procession from Jerusalem to Calvary. And the glory of Christianity is in the lives of love, service and sacrifice of the unnumbered millions who, following their Leader, have laid down their lives and are laying down their lives for their brethren. Christ's cross is the throne of God. The crown which He bestows upon his faithful followers is the crown of thorns the self-sacrifice of a life-giving love.

CHAPTER X

THY KINGDOM COME ON EARTH

In all that Jesus said and did-inspiring a new philanthropy, imparting the life of the spirit, curing the sin-sick, laying down his life in ceaseless service and self-sacrifice,- he was fulfilling the mission which his Father had entrusted to him.

He began his ministry as a herald preaching to an expectant people, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He ended it by testifying under oath to the Sandhedrin that he was the long-hoped for Deliverer and declaring to Pilate that he was a King whose empire and whose arms were truth. To that mission he devoted himself in life; for that mission he surrendered himself to death; that mission he passed on to his followers; and the hope that the Kingdom of God might come on earth which dominated his life and sustained him in death he bequeathed to them to be their prayer and their life purpose.

What did he mean by the Kingdom of God?

From the very beginning of their history as a Nation, the Jews had been taught by their prophets to look forward to a Golden Age when Israel should be a world ruler, all peoples, nations and languages should serve him, and under his just and beneficent rule poverty, ignorance, oppression and wars should cease. These prophecies are often obscure and sometimes seemingly contradictory. Sometimes this Kingdom is to be brought in by a King in his glory, sometimes by a Sufferer who will be despised and rejected of men, sometimes by Israel embodied in a divine leader, sometimes by the Nation whom the prophet personifies as itself a Leader. This is not strange. We mistake if we imagine that the object of prophecy is to give accurate information of future events. This the prophets have never suc ceeded in doing, probably never endeavored to do. They were poets; they were not anticipating historians. They spoke words of hope to inspire to courage and words of warning to admonish to caution; and their words were not less effectual because both the promises and the warnings were often illdefined and imperfectly understood. In the first

century the spirit of prophecy was dead in Israel, scribes had taken the place of prophets. The people, illy instructed by these "blind leaders of the blind" interpreted literally the prophecies which pleased them and ignored the others. This has been the custom of literalists in all ages.

They were familiar with world empires. At successive epochs Egypt, Chaldea, Assyria, Babylon Greece, had ruled the world. At that time Rome was ruler of the world. It was easy to believe that Israel's turn would come, that the gods of the pagan would disappear, that Jehovah would take their place, that Rome would fall into ruins and Jerusalem would become the world capital, that the prophecy of Daniel would be fulfilled and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven would be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Doubtless the national ideal was both vague and contradictory. National ideals always are vague and contradictory. In America to-day the ideal of some is material prosperity, of others educational development, of still others spiritual richness of life. As now, so then. The Kingdom of God meant prosperity and happiness and also righteousness and

peace. Some put emphasis on prosperity, others on righteousness. But they all agreed upon at least two points: that Israel would rule the world; and that her rule would be given to her by Jehovah as a sudden and splendid gift. "The idea of a gradual and regular progress upon earth was totally unknown to them. They, on the contrary, were now familiar with, and found no objection to, ideas of sudden or catastrophic change. In fact they usually thought that the Golden Age would (by divine intervention) immediately succeed an age of violence and wickedness; the worst would be immediately followed by the best." They believed "that God could and would suddenly, and one might almost say violently, create a new world, not through human coöperation, not through human achievement, but by His own power, His own will, His own goodness, and for His own sake and glory as much as for the sake and glory of Israel." 1

In his first recorded sermon, preached in the syna

1 C. G. Montefiore: "Outlines of Liberal Judaism," p. 151. "Some Elements of the Religious Teaching of Jesus," 1910, p. 64. This interpretation by a liberal and scholarly modern Jewish teacher cannot be suspected of Christian prejudice against the Jewish conception of the Kingdom of God. In fact Dr. Montefiore thinks Jesus shared that conception.