s a battle
between right and wrong, waged by a communion of good men fighting against
bad men and bad principles.

Perhaps, in reading the New Testament, we do not always see how much
Christianity turns around the phrase, and the idea behind it, of a
"kingdom of Heaven." The Beatitudes begin "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Both John the Baptist and Christ
announce that the _kingdom of Heaven_ is at hand. The parables revolve
round the same idea of "the kingdom." which is likened first to this, and
then to that; and so, passing on into the Epistles, we have the "kingdom
of Heaven" still as the leading conception of Christianity. "The kingdom
of God is not meat nor drink";--such are common expressions.

The peculiar conception of the Messiah also is of the King, the Anointed
one, the Head of this divine Monarchy. When we call Jesus the Christ, we
repeat this ancient notion of the kingdom of God among men. He himself
accepted it; he called himself the Christ. "Thou sayest," said he, to
Pilate, "that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came
I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth."

All through antiquity there ran the longing for a communion or association
of the wise and good, in order to establish truth and justice in the
world. The tendency of error is to divide; the tendency of selfishness is
to separation. Only goodness and truth are capable of real communion,
interpenetration, and so of organic life and growth. This is their
strength, power, and hope. Hence all the efforts at associated action in
antiquity, such as the College of Pythagoras, the ideal Republic of Plato,
the Spartan Commonwealth, the communities of the Essenes, the monastic
institutions of Asia and Europe; and hence, too, the modern attempts, in
Protestantism, by Fourier, the Moravians, the Shakers, Saint-Simon, Robert
Owen, and others.

But among the Jews this desire appeared, first in their national
organization, as a theosophic and theocratic community, and afterward,
when this broke down and the nation was divided, in a larger prophetic
hope of the Messianic times. There is a tendency in the human mind, when
it sees a great work to be done, to look for a leader. So the Jewish hope
looked for a leader. Their true King was to come, and under him peace and
righteousness were to reign, and the kingdom of heaven begin on earth. It
was to be on earth. It was to be here and