St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-01-31
HUMAN AMBITION REBUKED.

TEXT. And Jesus called little child
unto him and set him in the midst of
them, and said, Verify say unto YOU,
except ye be converted and become as
little children We shall not enter into the
Kingdom of heaven-Matt. 49, 2,3.
The disciples were troubled with per-
sonal ambitions. They were but men.
10 them, therefore, worldly success,
worldly greatness were things to be
desired. They attached themselves to
Christ with the idea that he was o re-
vive the kingdom ofDavid. They were
looking fora glorious Theocracy with
Jesus the visible ruler and themselves
his ministers. In such government
there would be grades of officers,
who shall be first then? Who shall
be the premier of this new king
DOM They watch the Master for
some word or look that shall indi-
cate his preference. They discuss the
matter we can imagine with deep
earnestness. They wrangle over it..
Cabinet making has ever been heart.
aching work. But through it all the
Master gives them no help. He is
utterly non-committal. Finally, and
most wisely, they decide to refer the
whole matter to Christ. They will
compel him to speak and so end this
painful questioning. 1t is by the
mouth of Peter, | presume, that they
came, for he was often their spokes-
man, and they confess their anxieties
by this to them, most momentous
question: "Who is greatest in the
kingdom of heaven ?"
The answer to this question as
given in our text is one Of the most
adroit aud beautiful things in
Christ's whole life. He does not
answer their question really; does
not tell them who of their number
shall be greatest.
That would only intensity their
jealousies, putting the elected ones
up and casting the Others down.
Neither does he tell them there will
be no favored ones in his kingdom,
that might rob them of half their
hopefulness and energy. They can
not yet grasp the idea of spiritual
kingdom. They are seeking temporal
kingdom, and temporal kingdom
with no crowned heads would mean
nothing to them. And so Jesus lets
them keep their delusion little long
err; by it he will at least hold them to
himself until he has had time to cor
rect their thinking and show them
the truer and better way. And this
he Immediately proceeds to do.
And so without answering their
question, he shows them by figure,
beautiful and expressive, that they
arein themselves, and all alike wrong.
Wrong in their very conception of
his kingdom. The whole trend and
impulse of their heart is wrong.
There must be complete reversal of
the whole current OF their life. With
his hand resting on the sunny hair of
a little child, whom he had called to
his knee, he said to these ambitious,
aspiring men. Except We be con-
verified and become as little children
We cannot enter into the kingdom of
of heaven"
o how crushing to their humane
feelings to thus be told after wrang-
ling about its high Offices that they
are not even fit to enter the kingdom,
that their whole character must be
blotted out and new one born in
them before they can cross its thresh'
old, much less sit in its high places.
Now the mistake of the disci-
pies has been the mistake of all tho
generations since their day,
Weseem to be race ofplace-seekers.
The history of the world seems to be
but the history of human ambition.
Kings have ruled too often not for
the uplifting of their people but for
their own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. When the
great William and his greater son
Frederick OF Prussia took the reins
in their insignificant duchy, it was
not apparently with the aim to be
good, but to be great not to lead
the people in virtues ways, but to
make themselves the peers if not the
superiors of the crowned heads OF
Europe. And the modern William is
no better; with knapsack and
rifle ready for every male child in the
realm, he shows his purpose to carry
out the policy Of his great ancestor.
When the immortal Peter came
through blood to the throne OF Rus
sia, he gave his tremendous energies