IT WOULD be a great mistake to limit the influence of Christ to what is technically known as religion, or to the church. He has a wider program. He came into this world for the redemption of the whole world. His is to be a universal kingdom. His plan is nothing less than that of controlling the entire machinery of the world's civilization. Governments, institutions, laws, customs, courts of justice, parliaments and legislatures, social usages and industrial systems--all are to be brought under the transforming power of Christ before the coming of the time foretold by prophet and seer, when there shall be a "new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
Jesus Christ, then, is not simply the central figure in the church, or in the Christian system; but he is the central personality in the world's history, and to him shall the gathering of the nations be. There is to be a world-unity as well as church unity, and Jesus Christ is the center of the former as well as of the latter. It follows from this that not only individuals, but nations and civilizations, and society in all its corporate forms, are brought face to face with "the strong Son of God," and must stand or fall in accordance with their relations to him. He has a message not only for every man, but for every institution, whether civil, religious, political, social, or industrial, that concerns its very life and its power to be useful in the world.
What a commanding message, then, is the gospel of Jesus Christ! No wonder one of the greatest preachers in the world, in contemplating the height and depth and breadth of this gospel, exclaimed: "Who is sufficient for these things?" And again: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." The minister of Jesus Christ, who has a clear grasp of the dignity of his calling' and of the supreme value of his message, may well stand unabashed before kings and potentates, presidents and parliaments, and speak the word which Christ has commanded for all classes and conditions of mankind. He has no apology to make for his message. He is the King's messenger, and utters the word from him before whom earth's mightiest no less than her humblest must bow in subjection.
What, then, is Christ's place in this mighty program of world-progress? He is humanity's tried and trusted Leader. He alone of all the sons of men has met the fiercest assaults of temptation without sin. His love for mankind exceedeth that of all other men. His knowledge of God is complete, for he is the perfect revelation of God. He knows humanity perfectly, because he was man at his highest and best. By every test which can be applied, and by every consideration, he, and he alone, is fitted to lead humanity forward to its supreme goal of righteousness and blessedness. Our churches, our preaching, our worship, our statecraft, our laws, and all the forms of our modern civilization, must be tested by their conformity to his will, as manifested in his teaching and in his character. The world can go forward in no department of its manifold life, except by a growing conformity to the high ideals of Jesus Christ. Whether there shall be war between nations for the settlement of their misunderstandings, whether human slavery shall exist, whether marriage is to be regarded as a secular contract that may be dissolved at pleasure, whether the traffic in intoxicating drinks shall be legalized for the sake of gain, with all its deadly and demoralizing influences upon mankind, whether great corporate interests shall trample under their feet the rights of toiling men and women, whether the church shall continue to exist in a divided condition, wasting its precious time and strength in building up denominational walls, instead of joining hands and hearts to remove these great evils out of the world--these, and a hundred similar questions, are to be submitted to the supreme test of Christ's wish and will. No man who knows Christ can be in doubt for a moment as to the fate of all these evils which obstruct the progress of the kingdom of God on earth. Thank God! Christ was never so potent in the affairs of men as he is today. Never were the eyes of humanity turned more longingly and hopefully to him than today, and never were there so many earnest prayers that he would lead the world onward and out of the shadows and sorrows of the great evils which afflict it. Never was the manhood of the race so stirred by the call of Christ as it is today. Never, since the dawn of the great apostasy, has the church realized the authority of Christ and the power of his personality as it does today. Lead on, thou Conquering Hero, till the kingdoms of this world shall be thine, and thou shalt see of the travail of thy soul and be satisfied!
