THE LAWS OF THE KINGDOM
‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.’
This is a parable concerning the laws and customs of the Kingdom of Heaven; that is, the spiritual and eternal laws by which God governs men. Infinite bounty and generosity! but if that bounty be despised and insulted, or outraged by wanton cruelty, then, for the benefit of the rest of mankind, awful severity! The king intended to treat these men as his guests and friends. They take the king’s messengers, and treat them spitefully, and kill them.
I. The king’s indignation.—Then there arises in that king a noble indignation. We do not read that the king sentimentalised over these rebels, and said, ‘After all, this evil, like all evil, is only a lower form of good.’ But that ‘He sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.’ The king was very angry, as he had a right to be. Let us lay that to heart, and tremble, from the very worst of us all to the very best of us. There is an anger in God as long as sin and wrong exist in any corner of the universe.
II. Our responsibility.—Yet the same law of God may be the messenger of his anger to the bad, while it is the messenger of His love to the good. For God has not only no passions, but no parts; and therefore His anger and His love are not different, but the same, and His love is His anger, and His anger His love. Under God’s anger or under God’s love we must be, whether we will or not. We cannot flee from His presence. On us, and on us alone, it depends whether the eternal and unchangeable God shall be to us a consuming fire, or light and life and bliss for evermore. Men do not believe that God punishes sin and wrong-doing either in this world or in the world to come. But the first law of that kingdom is that wrong-doing will be punished, and right-doing rewarded, in this life, every day and all day long.
III. What will the end be?—‘And what will ye do in the end thereof?’ asks Jeremiah. The prophets prophesied falsely, and the people loved to have their consciences drugged by the news that they might live bad lives and yet die good deaths. What the Jews did in the end thereof you may read in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. They did nothing; with their morality their manhood was gone. Sin had borne its certain fruit of anarchy and decrepitude. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ill-doing of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, knowing what is true and what is right, yet telling lies and doing wrong. Let us lay this to heart with seriousness and godly fear; for so we shall look up with reverence, and yet with hope, to Christ the ascended King, to whom all power is given in heaven and earth; for ever asking Him for His Holy Spirit to put into our minds good desires, and to enable us to bring these desires to good effect.
—Canon Kingsley.
Illustration
‘What is the figurative meaning of coming to Christ? It means that as penitents we should approach Him by prayer; that from Him we should seek the grace of His Spirit to amend our lives; that we should realise the need and value of His Intercession, and strive to become meet for it by working as carefully, strictly, and diligently as if all depended on ourselves; it is to love Him, and to show that we do so by keeping His commandments; it is to strengthen our communion with Him by sacraments, and all other means of grace which He has appointed, so as to make Him in all things our Ruler and Guide, and to make His will our own. This it is to come to Christ.’