a peculiar people, that ye should show forth
the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His
marvellous light. Which in time past were not a people, but are now the
people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained
mercy." "Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom." That the disciples have been the few in all ages
is alas only too palpable to those whose sight pierces no farther than
Elijah's, and who cannot fathom the secret things which are unveiled to
the eye of God. But it is a dark heresy to believe that the Lord meant
that His own should be the few in all ages, and that the rescue of an
election from the impending ruin can satisfy the heart of Him who cried,
as the hour of His anguish drew nigh, "And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me."

2. Closely associated with this is the notion that all which belongs to
the earthly life of men has a certain taint of evil upon it, is corrupt
and corrupting in its very nature; so that if a disciple touches it he
must touch it like pitch, cautiously, and expect contamination with all
his care. That if he must enter into the world's activities, buy, sell,
and get gain, marry and give in marriage, rule households and take part
in the government of states, he must do it under protest and under the
spur of a sharp necessity, and is bound to long anxiously for the time
when the need of all this will be over, and he will be free to meditate
on Divine things and to praise through eternity. If Christ's kingdom be
not of this world, he argues, then all which is of this world, politics,
literature, art, society, trade cannot be of Christ's kingdom; and His
subjects, hampered by these evil cares for a time, must be ever looking
forward eagerly to the day when they will be freed from them for ever.
And this is the meaning which is constantly veiled under the phrase,
"the coming of the Lord Jesus," and expressed in the prayer, "Even so,
Lord Jesus, come quickly."

3. Then further there is the notion that it is only in a very partial
sense that we can talk of Christ's kingdom here, that it belongs
essentially to the future and eternal state, and can only be fully
comprehended by him who can separate it in thought from all the
blemishes and accidents of time, and behold it, pure from the defilement
and degradation of the earthly (that is the human) in this world, in its
glorious Divine form i