Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-06-07

When Christ was manifest in the flesh
his contemporaries did not receive him
because, he was not the kind of Messiah
they wished for. They desired a politi-
cal Messiah who would drive out the
Roman from the land of promise, and
restore again the kingdom to Israel"
If he had come to them as a political
leader, he would have met their expecta-
ticns and would have received their sup
port. But coming, as he did, to set up
spiritual kingdom, he was disappOint-
ment to them. Hence "he came to his
own and his own received him not"
They did not seek one who should rule
in their own hearts, but one who should
govern others like the Romans, and
thereby enable them to live according to
their own wishes.
Such disposition is not confined to the
Jews Of the first century. There be
many in our day who entertain the
same notion of the mission of Jesus.
They desire that he shall govern others
In order to secure for themselves the
benefits Of his reign; and the benefits
of his reign upon which their hearts are
mainly set are benefits of a carnal
restrain others that they may be more
secure in the enjoyment of the earthly
| comforts which they feel that they must
have They wish social refinement and
political order, and that they may have
such benefits they wish Christ's author
| ity respected by others far enough at
| least to assure these things for them
selves. Yet they do not propose to be
themselves entirely subject to Christ's
rule. His demands upon their own souls
| they have no slightest purpose to regard
They do not propose to be religious in
the only true sense of the word, but
they desire others to be sufficiently
| Christian in order that good order and
decency may prevail. They conceive of
Christianity as police system, and they
are ready to support Jesus for the office
of chief oa-police.
They favour foreign missions as tho
| means to tame the fierce passions of
heather peoples, avert yellow perils, )"
and promote commerce. Now, all these
things will follow the spread of the
religion of Christ in pagan lands, but
they are not the things at which Jesus
aims in the salvation which he offers to
the world. To speak after the manner of
men, these things are the by-products OF
| Christianity, and not the essential re-
seek and to save that which is lost,
and in doing that he secures all lower
| good But the lower good can not be
| had If attention is diverted from the high
est good. Christianity can not be prop
agated in foreign parts as heavenly
police system to assure the security OF
christendom against pagan perils. 1t must
spread out of love for the heather world
| and with view to the redemption of all
mankind from sin. If it approach the
heather world in any other spirit, 1t will
be violently rejected, and 1t will deserve
| the rejection which it will surely receive.
In like manner, there be many who
support missions to the slums and other
neglected districts of our own land In
order that the whole community may be
exempted from the dangers which infest
such settlements. They fear these sec
tons as centers from which deadly pesti-
lences and mortal contagious spread
They dread them also for the moral dan
gers which arise from them. Hence they
wish the home missionary to carry re-
ligion to the outcast classes which In
habit these dark places Of the earth. and
to go with all speed to the work. They
wish Jesus, so to speak, to go with all
haste as a sanitary inspector and social
regulator to the submerged tenth In or
der that the submergence may not In
volve their own set in any serious man
ner But the slums can not be purified
that way and Jesus will not abdicate his
high claims to the lordship over all souls
In order to accept the office Of chief SAM
tary inspector.
Again, there are those who are nightly