The record-union., 1894-05-21
THE TIMES ARE OUT OF JOINT.
And All Because Men Are Drifting OF
From Religion.
Synopsis of a Sermon Delivered Last
Evening by General Secretary
Miller of the Y. Nj. c. A.

G.. A. Miller, General Secretary OF lne
Young Mems Christian Association, de-
livered the sermon last evening at the
Sixth-street NJ. E. Church, choosing for
his text: "Thy kingdom come" Matt.
vi, 1O.)
1t has been said, remarked the speaker.
that the medieval priests opened the
Bible and saw in it the truth, "Our Father
who art in Heaven" and were SO inn
pressed with the thought of the heavenly
abode that they closed the book and di-
rected all their energies to finding out
what they could about Heaven and get
ting ready for it. 1t is only in the pres
ent time that men have again opened the
Word, and have seen in it the rest OF the
truth: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be
done Oh earth" Since Jesus Christ
spent his life on earth in establishing the
Kingdom OF Heaven and taught men to
pray for its coming, 1t IS probable tnat
the subject is an important one, and that
there is some likelihood that the prayer
will be answered, unless his mission De
great failure.
Yet the ideal of the early church-the
setting up OF a government with the re-
turned Christ as a ruler-waS not real
lied and the similar expectations OF men
since that time have been disappointed III
like manner. May we not, have been
looking in the wrong direction Tor The
coming Kingdom, and thus have delayed
its coming? What and wherei is the king
dom for the coming OF which we are 10
pray and work? If there is anything
that Christ teaches, it is that the Kingdom
is 10 be found in the lives OF men. 1t Is
within you''-it is the grain OF SEED, the
transforming life principle; It is the net
that draws through the lives of men and
casts out the bad, while collecting the
good; it is the priceless pearl that admits
OF no substitute. In its essence 1t IS The
power of the personality OF Jesus Christ:
In its manifestations it is the changed
lives of men and the changed conditions
of human life that it has brought about
in nineteen centuries.
The ancient ideal of a kingdom was
government in which the will OF the
monarch was performed perfectly. The
condition of the coming of Gods king
dom is that ''Thy viii be done, on earth
as in heaven" Wherever there is a
loyal citizen, there is the kingdom OF
heaven. We have got beyond the stage
of monarchy and are learning that the
Kingdom exists in its citizens rather
than in its laws.
But why has not the kingdom come in
great power before this time, and made
even greater changes in the world than il
has? Because the kingdom of God and
the Kingdom of evil are occupying the
same ground-the hearts of men and the
institutions of society-and there is OPP
position to the change. A great many
people can cross bridge in short time,
if they all go in the same direction, but il
half of them movein an opposite direction
the progress will be slow, and there may
be a blockade.
Just now there is blockade in the pro-
gresS of the nation, and there is more
need than ever to pray and work for The
coming OF Gods kingdom. The cause of
the present congestion of our national
lie is to be found in the fact that we have
been moving opposite, or at right angles,
To the laws of the kingdom of God, and
nothing but the coming of His Kingdom
viii remedy the trouble. Ii this state
nent needs demonstration we need but
look at the facts which stare US in the
face. Take one example. There are two
millions of men out of work in the
country. Some of them do not want
work, and would not work if they could.
but more OF them do want work and can
not find it.
There is as much work to be done in
the land to-day as there ever was, and it
is as badly needed. Why can not these
men be hired to do it? Because there is
not money enough in circulation to en-
that is availa BILE for such work, because
we have developed system of finance by
which the rewards Of labor have been
gradually accumulated by the few. until
by the operation of the law of every
one for himself" the devil has taken the
hindmost sure enough, and the hindmost
is the wage worker.
On the other side of this great prob
lem. the wage-earner has squandered his
subtance in riotous living till he had
developed habits OF Incidence and vice,
and after the finishing touch of a few
months tranping with company living
on the charity OF the people, Is not worth
hiring at any price. The trouble on both
sides OF the problem Is one and the same.
Men have been living at variance with
the laws Of the kingdom of God, and
these are the natural consequences. To
the property the message is a
plain one. All property is to be held in
trust and used for the bettering of the
lives of men. Am L my brothers.
keeper?' has been answered most en-
phatically in the affirmative, so far as all
relations over which "I'' have control
are concerned.
By the disobedience of this law-by the
use of the wealth of the nation for the
individual benefit of class of few. in
stead of the nation to whom God gave
1.-THE present financial disaster had been
pIoOuCSus IL Iuo W dS S6-6afneI tH0 ulcS-
sage is equally plain. II the sobriety,
and industry, and honesty of the gospel
were lived out in the lives of men who
do the labor of the country. there would
be few of them who could not find some
means of existing now without begging.
The same transgression of the laws OF
Gods kingdom has produced the disas-
trouS results on both sides of the ques-
tion. Our cities contain great slum dis
tricts; virtue is being sold for bread, and
men are starving for want of work, be-
cause there is no one to hire them-all
not because of the tariff, but because men
are not living in harmony with the laws
of the kingdom of God.
The only remedy for the evils of the
age is for the kingdom to come in its
power, which will never happen till we
get ont into the world of business and
society and politics and clean up a little,
and make condition of society III which
the Kingdom of God can come and reach
the lives of men. Of all the men who are
converted in the churches, missions and
army, many so back to the old life be-
cause the conditions under which they
live are not such that In the nature of
things they can do otherwise
But the great mistake that has been
made is in the persistence with which
some people yet cling to the medieval
idea and try to keep separate the things
of God and the things Of the world When
men run line through human life and
put on the side that they call the devils
nearly every thing that is worth having
in the world, Is 1t any wonder that his
satanic majesty assists his servants TO
take possession of the proffered terri
tory? What is needed now is that men