taught thee, or because
thou recognizest Me as able to bring order and peace into troubled
hearts like thine?"

Whatever thoughts had instinctively made themselves felt were instantly
beaten back by his strong Roman pride. Never before had he been
catechised thus. And he answered haughtily, "Am I a Jew? Thine own
nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me: what hast
Thou done?"

Our Lord did not answer that question by enumerating deeds which had
filled Palestine with wonder; but contented Himself by saying that He
had committed no political offence, and had no idea of setting Himself
up as king, in the sense in which Pilate and the Jews used the word:
"My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world,
then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the
Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence."

Never in the history of this world did the lips of man speak or his
ears listen to a more pregnant or remarkable utterance. But it has
been shamefully misunderstood. Men have misread the words, and said,
See, the religion of Jesus is quite unworldly, has nothing to do with
the institutions and arrangements of human life. It deals with the
spiritual, and not with the secular. It treats of our spirits, not our
hands or pockets. So long as we recognize Christ's authority in the
Church, we may do as we like in the home, the counting-house, the
factory, and the shop.

It was in no such sense that Jesus uttered these words, and the mistake
has largely arisen through the misunderstanding of the word _of_ as
used by our translators. It has not the force of belonging to, or
being the property of; but is the translation of a Greek preposition,
meaning out of, springing from, originating in. We might freely
translate the Master's words thus: "My kingdom does not originate from
this world; it has come down from another, to bring the principles,
methods, and inspirations of heaven to bear on all the provinces of
human thought and activity." The Son of Man claims the whole of man
and all that he does as a subject of His realm. He cannot spare one
relationship of human life, one art, one industry, one interest, one
joy, one hope from the domain of His empire. He has a word about the
weight in the pedlar's bag, the dealings of the merchant on 'Change,
the justice and injustice of wars that desolate continents.

The one conspicuous proof of the absolutely foreign origin of this