hard and unreconciled mind; and the gift of his life is the greatest offering which a man can make to his friends. One thought remains. The love which bore the cross was not merely the kindness and affection of a man; for love is not the accident of flesh and blood, but belongs to the eternal realm. The regard which all men feel for kindred and friends may be said, in distinction, to belong to the natural order; but the love which is a pervasive character of the soul, and, without waiting for sympathetic objects, flows perennially from the deep springs of its own independent life, is of heavenly origin. 'Love is from God, and every one that loveth has been born from God.' It was, then, the Spirit of God himself, living and working in him, that spoke to the world in Christ; it was Divine love that sustained him on the cross, a Divine pity and pardon for sin that bore the scorn and shame. And may we not add Paul's thought, that the love of God was shown in that he' spared not his own Son' ?2 We must speak in figures. A father's heart is pierced when he sends forth his son to suffer and die for some great cause. And so we may say with all reverence, and knowing the inadequacy of our speech, that the heart of the infinite Father is touched when, through love to sinful man, he puts his Spirit upon his Beloved, and sends him forth to pain and death, that he may establish a Divine kingdom in the world. This is true, in its measure, of all saints; and if the reconciling power of the world, the light of heavenly love, reaches its focus on the cross, it is diffused in many-coloured rays through a multitude of souls. When once we have truly apprehended the love of Christ, we perceive a glory of Divine love throughout the world, and know that love is the principle of eternal life, and whosoever loves dwells in God, and God in him. This, then, is the reconciliation, when we recognize the forgiving love of God, and, in spite of all our imperfections, rest in it with submissive wills, and humble gratitude and trust. We must now leave this long examination, and touch 2 Rom. viii. 32. 1 I John iv. 7. upon another topic which is less open to discussion. The second function attributed to Christ's priestly office is intercession. On this subject we must be content with a very few words; for what passes in the world of departed spirits is closely veiled from our eyes, and, though we may allow some scope to a trustful imagination, we are not in a position to lay down precise doctrines. We may, however, feel pretty confident that Christ does not intercede for men as though he were more merciful or less just than God. He whose meat it was on earth to do his Father's will cannot oppose that will in heaven. Nor can he exhibit his wounds as though God were in danger of forgetting them, or were likely to have his better judgment overruled by this appeal to a mere physical pity. Such ideas represent a mythological anthropomorphism, which can belong only to the Ptolemaic astronomy and an unspiritual form of Christianity. But we may fairly think that Christ is still praying for the race which he loved. If intercessory prayer, as an expression of the heart's love, is legitimate here, there is no reason why it should be silent there. This, however, is not the special office of a priest. All may offer the spiritual sacrifice of prayer; and if there is at present no immediate connexion between our spirits and those that have entered the immortal state, we may at least trust that there is a communion of love and prayer, and that we are united to one another in him who holds our lives in his keeping. So if anyone finds comfort in believing that he who died upon the cross still cherishes the world in his love, and that one so much holier than himself prays for all sinful men, I know not why this comfort should be denied him. Only these things are not so much articles of faith as a moral trust in the immortality of love. 3. Regal Office When we pass to the regal work of Christ, we are still within the region of figurative language. The Messiah was indeed expected to be a king in the literal sense, and no doubt some of the disciples of Jesus looked forward to a time when he would return, and occupy the throne of David, and rule over the house of Jacob for ever.1 But though this expectation is put by his biographer into the mouth of an angel, Jesus himself gave no countenance to such a limited and earthly view. On the one occasion when we are told that he distinctly accepted the title of king, he had previously stated that his kingdom was not of this world, and he proceeded further to explain that he was king in the empire of truth.2 In the parabolic description of the judgment of the world the Son of Man' is represented as a king; but Jesus does not in this passage expressly identify the Son of Man with himself, and it is evident that the whole description relates to principles of judgment, and not to literal facts. On another occasion, we are told, he said to his Apostles, 'I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.' Here again, though the words might be literally understood, it seems most probable that they were intended to convey a spiritual idea under an earthly symbol. Jesus repeatedly proclaims a kingdom of God, not a kingdom of his own; and though I believe he thought of himself, in his own spiritual sense, as the Messiah, he repeatedly, as in the Lord's Prayer, keeps himself out of sight, and interposes nothing between the soul and God. Nothing could have been more repugnant to his whole tone of thought than the assumption of the power and trappings of royalty; for he came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. The figure was more readily used by his disciples; but, if any earthly notions mingled in their thought, it is clear that the spiritual still preponderated, and the kingdom of Christ formed in their minds a marked contrast to the heathen empires by which the world was crushed. Paul declares that Christ must reign till he has put all enemies under his 1 See Luke i. 32 sq. 3 Matt. xxv. 31, 34, 40. 2 John xviii. 36 sq. feet, the enemies being evidently the powers of sin and death.1 This reign is extended in the Apocalypse from himself to his followers, so that, as in Daniel, the kingdom belongs to the saints of the Most High. In other passages Christ's kingdom is simply referred to,3 and twice it is connected with the kingdom of God.4 2 6 Another mode of expression, closely connected with that of regal dignity, is derived from the 110th Psalm, 'Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool '; for this is quoted more than once in connexion with Christ.5 Jesus himself, when questioned by the high-priest, applies this figure to the Son of Man, evidently with an allusion to the passage in Daniel: Ye shall see the Son of Man seated on the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.' This metaphor of sitting or standing or simply being on the right hand of God is used with sufficient frequency to show that it had become a common Christian idea. It must have originated at a time when Christ had not yet been identified with God, and was probably intended to express, not so much the regal power, as the heavenly exaltation of Christ, and the identity of his rule with that of God. But it lent itself easily to speculations as to the 1 I Cor. xv. 25. 2 Rev. v. 10, xx. 4, 6, xxii. 5. 3 Col. i. 13,' He has removed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love'; II Tim. iv. I, 18, 'his heavenly kingdom'; II Pet. i. II, the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'; and see Rev. i. 9. 4 Eph. v. 5, the wicked have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God'; Rev. xi. 15, the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.' 5 Matt. xxii. 44, with parallels in Mark xii. 36, Luke xx. 42 sq.; also Acts ii. 34 sq., Heb. i. 13. • Matt. xxvi. 64, with the parallels in Mark xiv. 62, Luke xxii. 69. 7 Mark xvi. 19; Acts vii. 55, 56; Rom. viii. 34; Eph. i. 20; Col. iii. 1 ; Heb. i. 3, viii. 1, x. 12, xii. 2; I Pet. iii. 22. 8 In Rev. iii. 21, it is promised that he who conquers' shall share the throne of Christ; so that this elevation is not supposed to be beyond the reach of man. Fitzstephen, describing the murder of à Becket, says that he was' on his way to God's right hand,' ad dextram Dei iturus: Abbott, St. Thomas of Canterbury, I, p. 151. cosmic power of Christ; for, as seated at the right hand of God, he might seem to be God's vicegerent in the government of the universe. We know not what power or what administration may be entrusted to the immortal soul, and on such subjects it is more reverent to be silent. Yet some thoughts of a more spiritual kind, and more within the range of our experience, may be permitted. Christ's kingdom is the rule which, through his teaching and his Spirit, he exercises over the hearts of men. His subjects are not those who shout Lord, Lord, and do not the things which he says, but those who, drawing from him the same Spirit of life, do the will of his Father in heaven. And if we would give him a cosmic significance, we may say that, as being filled with the fulness of the Divine Spirit, he enshrines the idea which lies at the heart of the universe, and is the final cause of its creation. To be in him is to be in God, for his Spirit is the Spirit of God; and whosoever abides in him abides in love, and love is the eternal life of the world. |