Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1915 — KINGDOM IS REAL [ARTICLE]

KINGDOM IS REAL

Jesus’ Words Had Reference Not Only to a Condition of the Spirit. No change in religious thought Is more remarkable than that which has taken place in our interpretation of Jesus* oft repeated phrase, the “Kingdom of God.” That the whole gospel of the Nazarene is contained in bis . idea of the "Kingdom” and the whole purpose of his life summed up in his prayer, “Thy Kingdom come,” has long been understood, but not until our -own day have we come to see just what was meant by this idea and this purpose. In the past men have assumed that the “Kingdom of God” referred to a certain inward attitude of mind or condition of spirit The word "Kingdom,” it has been agreed, was used by the master in a figurative sense and was intended to apply to the inner and not the outer world, to things spiritual and not material. The establishment of the Kingdom meant the establishment of God’s purpose in the hearts of men, and the coming of the Kingdom the transformation of the human soul from a state of depravity to one of grace. "The Kingdom of God is within you.” This has been accepted in all ages as the final and perfect definition of the teaching. Scope of the Kingdom. Vary recently, however, have men come to feel that, while Jesus undoubtedly meant this, he also meant much more than this. For what evidence is there, in our records of the Nazarene’s career, that he meant to limit his idea of the Kingdom to the Inwarcf realm of the spirit? On the contrary, is there not abundant evidence, in what he said and did, that he meant very that the Kingdom should cover the outward as well as the inward world, and work a revolution In society as well as in the soul? "In Jesus’ conception,” says Prof. Rudolf Eucken, the most eminent living exponent of spiritual idealism, "the 'Kingdom of God* Is by no means merely an inner transformation, affecting only the heart and mind, and leaving the outer world In the same condition. Rather, historical research puts it beyond question that the new Kingdom means a visible order as well —that it aims at a complete change in the state of things. . . . Never in history has mankind been summoned to & greater revolution than here, where not this and that among the conditions but the totality of human existence is to be regenerated.” Not "the Kingdom of God is within you,” is the correct translation, but "the Kingdom of God is among you!**. Its Source In the Heart Here, in this extension of our understanding of the gospel of the Kingdom, is the greatest religious discovery of our age. The Kingdom of God is indeed “within” us, but it must not stay there. On the contrary, it must go out “among” our fellow men, and there transform the social order into a realm of perfect righteousness and peace. The Kingdom must have its source in the heart, which, to quote the great phrase of St Augustine, “rests not until it rests in God;” but like a river and not a stagnant pool, it must then flow out, to clothe with beauty the waste places of the earth. The Kingdom means the will of God "done on earth,” which in turn means the establishment of justice among men. The betterment of living conditions, the establishment of just relations between employers and employees, the reduction of Infant mortality, the protection of helpless old age, the alleviation of poverty, the conquest of disease, the furthering of knowledge, the "war against war” —all these things are the works of the Kingdom, and the men and women everywhere who are achieving these things are the servants of the Kingdom. For the first time since the earliest days of Christianity the master’s prayer, "Thy Kingdom come/’ is being little by little answered. And this for the reason that we understand that the Kingdom means, to quote Eucken once more, “a new order of the world and. of life!” ~