The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-14

nation. Kings and rulers can no longer plunge
their people into a war for the mere purpose, as
of old, of answering a personal pique or jealousy.
Already have the masses of the people advanced
sufficiently in knowledge of their own rights and
of Christian truth, also, as to demand that those
who rule over them shall rule in righteousness
or give way to those who will. For all quarrels
between nations the people turn instinctively
toward arbitration not to war, for their solu-
ton. 1t was thus that the Christian common
sense of this nation asserted itself in our
grievous quarrel with England, and the treaty
resulting therefrom is one of the grandest achieve
ments Of modern Christian diplomacy. And
thus will it be everywhere as the people of the
world shall advance in knowledge of Christian
truth. With the coming of Chrsts kingdom
will come righteousness and peace.
Mankind is encouraged to pray, also, "Thy
kingdom come because, pre-eminently, of what
remains to be accomplished. We have scarcely
yet come to a fall knowledge of the comprehen-
siveness of this prayer. Often as we may have
uttered it, it may have been in the sense that the
kingdom might come to us individually, and not
in the earth, where as yet far other than the
will of God reigns. This was not Christs
understanding of it, when He gave 1t
for our guidance. 1t embraces us in
deed, but it reaches over and beyond us
to the whole earth and the whole universe. The
grand aim of this kingdom is to re-establish the
Father-honor of God in the earth. Christ is
to ''see of the travail of his soul and be salts
fed, and this cannot be until the kingdom of
BfdC6 Is luuy SeG up III every SOuL
upon the face of the earth. Yea. more;
L think that Christ cannot be satisfied
until the redeemed shall be so vast in numbers
as to make the army of the lost seem in compar-
ison like the small dust of the balance" and
be thus the browning, manifest conquest of
their Leader.
1 do not think, therefore, that the millennium is
at hand. Darkness and sin cover too much of the
earth for Christ to come yet a while to give
it for an Inheritance to his saints. There is to
be a union of heaven and earth one day. but the
earth is too much encountered by the debris of
the fall to have that union soon
Hence the eVer-newness of the prayer, Thy
kingdom come, and the missionary impulse It's
grand significance ought to produce in every
heart that longs for the time to come when
Christ shall be indeed the King of kings and
Lord of lords"
Finally, where is this.kingdom and where does
it Gomez | answer-where the will of the King
is done. This is the eliminating point, to con
vert the earth into heaven and make its people
like the angels whose delight it is to do the will
of God. Vast is the meaning which
far above all the stir and tumult of
humanity, inviting all of Gods people to I'M
wearied wrestling in praying and receiving, and
fervor in doing His will. We have often, per
chance, repeated the words, ''Thy will be done
in earth as it is in heaven without realizing the
flialness, the humility, and the holiness OF the
petition. And so they have been but a mean
ingless sound. 1t is no wonder, therefore, that
the Kingdom is so long coming. III VIII uOI
come until this prayer is fully carried out, and
We ON earth have attained somewhat of the life
of heaven, where naught is thought of save the
will, the kingdom, and the honor of God. There
is a great work then before us. We can, to
a great extent. answer the petion for ourselves
by letting God do with us and through
us what He will. If we would be Giving stones
in the temple that Christ is building up, we
must let Him hew and trim us as he sees fit, and
put us in when and where. and as he wants us.
IL ic HE will not OuTc tbat forTna1 tba plaDc and
by that will not ours mustit be builtup.
And herein hes the great impeachment to all
progress and peImanence in what God through
us is trying to bring about in the earth. We
pray for the coming of the kingdom, but we
want to have it come in our own way. We pray
to be made subjects in the kingdom, and yet we
want to hold the reins Of government in our
own hands tho meanwhile. Every
Thy will be DONE" and yet how
supremacy difficult to say it trustingly. Such is
the hold over US of our selfshness that we can
not pray for the most needy spiritual blessings
without debating to God. Our stubborn hearts
are a greater hindrance than we are aware of to
the coming of the kingdom in ourselves and in
the earth.
We are sometimes impatient at the slowness
with which His kingdom has been and is com
ing, but the cause OF that slowness Is in our own
wills. 1t is very much with His kingdom as it
is with buildings. How often have some costly
structures had to be taken down and rebuilt, be-
cause the builders Numbered with the founda-
tons, or put some brick or stone out of plumb.
SO the kingdom of Christ has been set back
and started anew o~ftentimes, because men
with too much of their own wills
tried to run it. God has but one way, and that
is His own will. He win permit the kingdom to
come only as it conforms to the ideal OF His own
viii. In earth as it is in heaven" is His plan,
and this must be ours if we would be eo-workers
with Him. Wenoed the will of the spirit to
pray on and on through all the impediments of
an opposing flesh TO perfect victory. Praying
Divine will, we shall indeed accomplish some
thing toward the grand co-nsummatiOn. And
one day. from the heights of glory, we shall
shout for Joy as we behold the heaven and earth
one-the kingdom of grace, for which we toiled
and prayed through the long days and dark
nights of our pilgrimage, welded for ever and
ever to the kingdom of glory. Amen.