Christianity as a World-Power
J. G. Lorimer, D.D. Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed… "A dream, only a dream," is likely to be the mocking language of the so-called practical men of the world, who regard it as an evidence of superior sanity to trust only facts and figures, when this immortal declaration is read in their hearing. True, in the visions of night royal Nebuchadnezzar had seen a gleaming colossus of different metals, not unlike the huge colossi guarding his own palace gates, which had been smitten by the mysterious fragment of rock cut from a mountain without hands, and which Daniel had interpreted in the passage before us. And what then? Are all such disclosures necessarily unworthy of credence? Was not Abimelech Divinely guided through a dream? Was not the immediate future of Egypt accurately foreshown to Pharaoh through the same means? Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions relate the accomplishment of various events that were anticipated in sleep. Thus Gyges, King of Lydia, had been admonished to enter on an alliance with Assurbanipal; and by this method Egypt had been encouraged to unite against the Assyrians. Likewise in Persian history, rulers, such as Afrasiab and Xerxes, were warned and directed when their senses were wrapped in slumber, and the scenes uncurtained were faithful counterparts of approaching realities. And what are all the successes of our modern era, all the conquests over nature, all the triumphs over tyranny, all the vindications of human rights, but the fulfilment of dreams dreamed by saints and sages, poets and philosophers, for the announcement of which they were derided and cursed, were shut up in prison and thrust out of life? My own opinion is, as far as chronology is concerned, that we are taught that during the rise and fall of ancient nations God was cutting out of the mountains a stone, was setting up a kingdom, and is still setting up a kingdom, which, in the fulness of time, shall prevail over all empires and shall fill the entire earth. But I am inclined to believe that the prime intention of the writer was not so much to fix times and seasons as to bring into relief the eternal antagonisms that exist between what the mighty image represents and what the stone denotes; and to create a just conception of the nature and history of Christianity as a world-power. The originality of Christianity as a world-power is worthy of serious thought. 1. This originality appears in the source of its inspiration. Whoever reads carefully the New Testament must have observed the prominence assigned the Holy Spirit. His presence and potency constitute likewise the distinguishing excellency of our faith. With the day of Pentecost came His advent and His incarnation in the church. Revivals of religion are not fresh processions of the Comforter from the Unseen. They are distinct manifestations of what is the perennial possession of God's people, There are times when the tides of the sea rise higher, but we are not to suppose that there has been a new or larger supply of water, only a peculiar concentration and elevation. So revivals are only higher tides, more over-mastering demonstrations of power, and greater exhibitions of fervency; they are not a new descent or coming of the Paraclete. They are often needed, and are needed now, to recall the church to the source of her inspiration. Political world-powers are impelled onward, sometimes by lust of conquest, sometimes by desire for gain, sometimes by glory, or by what they vaguely term, "manifest destiny." They are at times governed by the spirit of the Chauvinist, of the French soldier, who could not conceive of anything wrong in the great Napoleon; and thus become fatuous idolaters of country and party. Frequently they are dominated by a Machiavelianism, which seeks, as Richelieu stated, to preserve the unofficial conscience separated from the state conscience, and which forms the habit of acting indirectly and crookedly so that nothing can be done without deception. Their statesmen are often incapable of the great thoughts which are necessary to precede great actions, and listen with ear to the ground for the whisperings of the crowd; or they are unpardonably indifferent to the needs of the people, and betray them when concentrated wealth demands the sacrifice and offers its dirty thirty pieces of silver. And whenever churches, in the remotest degree, approximate to such motives and methods, they lose their unique character. Then their originality is obscured, and the world treats them as they deserve, as mere lath and plaster. The Kingdom of Christ should always be moved from within, from the impulses of the Spirit who hath descended from above. Throughout the New Testament, from the birth of Christ to the separating of Paul and Barnabas to the ministry of missions, the Holy Spirit is the chief actor. Nothing is more impressive in the post-resurrection life of our Lord than His constant breathing of the Spirit on His followers. Without Him Pentecost would have been impossible, and without Him there would have been no adequate momentum toward the evangelisation of Samaria and the regions beyond. Almost every departure in new and aggressive work has been preceded by a spiritual quickening somewhere. It was so when the great missionary organisations came into being. They were not called into existence by human ingenuity to serve as organs for the work of the Holy Spirit; they were themselves begotten by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, I fear, we forget this. Sometimes we approach the work of the kingdom as though it were identical with that of the world. And soon we are tempted to boast that we administer churches and missions as leading business men manage business. In a sense this is very well; but after all, the kingdom cannot be administered merely as a vast corporation. Indeed, were this ideal paramount, corporations being what they are to-day in fact and in the popular estimate, the sympathies and prayers of the Christian masses would speedily be detached from the cause of Christ. No; it must seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit, to follow His leadings, yield to His inspirations, and become more and more a pliant instrument in His hand; and where this is done, the unique glory by which its Founder designed it to be for evermore distinguished will be displayed and recognised. 2. The originality of Christianity also appears in the power of its assimilation. Usually national types are fixed and definite. It is not an easy thing to overcome them, and after generations of intermarriages they are not always obliterated. What has been accomplished to render homogeneous this heterogeneous mass has been largely the work of the evangelical faith. That faith is like a magnificent furnace in which the representatives of various nationalities are melted down, fused, and are made capable of being moulded. What it has wrought in Fiji, in Polynesia, in Burma, in China, and Japan would have been impossible if Christianity were not wonderfully adapted to all races and tribes, the lowest and the highest. If the day ever comes when differences shall disappear and humanity be as one, it will be in consequence of the transforming grace of the Spirit. This religion alone seems to be gifted with the universal quality. It is broad enough, it is wide enough, it is deep enough. It knows the needs of the common heart of man. In it kings and princes find comfort, and in it barbarians and outcasts find hope. To confer its blessings it asks no man of what house, family, or clime he comes. His needs are recognised, and the provision is Sufficient and abundant. This cannot be said of Hinduism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, and the rest. However numerous their adherents, these creeds nevertheless are provincial and narrow in their scope. They are only accepted by kindred peoples; and the more they are known the less charm they have for the European and American. By this test, if their claims are judged, they must yield to the superior merit of Christianity. 3. The Originality of Christianity appears in the benevolence of its aspirations. This cannot be alarmed of worldly empires of the Babylonian or Roman type. Doubtless some among them in our day justify their interference in the affairs of inferior races on the ground that they would do them good. But every competent judge perceives that all this is reversed in the case of Christianity. Wherever she goes she blesses, and in pagan lands it is only her spirit and influence which mitigate the evils of foreign occupation. Sir Herbert Edwardes testified years since, as the result of his observations in the East: "That secular education and civilization will ever regenerate a nation I do not believe; as an able missionary once said, 'He alone can make a new nation who can form a new man.'" In the same direction I quote Mr. Hawthorne: "The only salvation of India, even from an economic point of view .... is its Christianisation." And with him the Hon. Mr. Bryce evidently agrees, for he is quoted as saying that the Indian Empire could not last unless it were Christianised, and that nothing else can hold it together. Captain Mahan likewise perceives a peril in bringing together the East and the West on the basis of common material advantages without a correspondence in spiritual ideals. Men like Schwartz, Livingstone, Carey, and Ashmore are the saviours of pagan lands. When their disinterested labours are understood, a new and regenerating idea begins to dawn and an uplift is experienced. Here lies the secret of Christian power. Religion asks for no man's silver and gold, attempts not to rob him of his wealth, brings to bear on him no violence, does not shoot down his children or burn his villages; and the method is so novel, the intent so unselfish, that the hearts of multitudes are moved to repentance and faith. Sovereignty means right, authority, chieftaincy; the right to subdue, overcome, and sweep away whatever wrongfully is arrayed against it. But Christianity has no authority to fall on, to crash and annihilate by sheer force what she may regard as antagonistic to her reign. She is not permitted to appeal to the sword. Christ Himself decreed that the servants of the kingdom should not fight. They were not authorised to invoke the weapons of war for the advancement of the Cross. This inhibition likewise forbids them to encourage others, the secular powers, for instance, to invade distant lands, seizing them and occupying them for the sake of Christian evangelisation. Then the paucity of language appears again in the dream when the idea is suggested that these various empires are so blotted out as to obliterate their inhabitants, and that all human governments are to be supplanted by the church. Interpreting Scripture by Scripture, and symbols by common sense, I understand the action of the stone in falling on the huge form to denote the right of the church to efface and expunge everything in the State that is ungodly, unrighteous, and unjust, so that the actual administration of affairs will come to harmonise with her ideals. In other words, she is to incarnate herself in human society and in all of its mechanism, whether it be the machinery of government, of education, of commerce, or industry. She is not to remain for ever outside, a something distinct from the secular; but she is to take possession of it, transform it, become its very soul, and direct all of its movements from within. As Christianity is not to take the sword, the expression and action of her sovereignty must be moral; and we are to learn from the scene before us that this exceeds all other weapons in potency. We are all slow to learn this truth. And yet not an age passes without being demonstrated anew. A nation rushes into speculations which imperil industry, and encourages business methods which are pernicious, and dazzled by her successes sneers at the conservatives and the moralists. But the day of judgment comes. Some stone — the hard, inexorable law of rectitude asserts itself falls on the entire mass of chicane and deceit, and collapse fallows. It ought also to be noted that these indications which are making for the final triumph of Christianity are usually characterised by suddenness and occasionally even by violence. This violence is the natural overflow of the moral principles which have been generated through religion in the volcanic soul of humanity. The humiliation of Spain is a case in point. The Reformation under Luther was another illustration of what we should learn from this theme. What a crash it was? How unexpected though inevitable? What cruelty and horror it occasioned. And yet what marvellous progress it inspired. It was blowing up the barrier that impeded freedom of thought and the advance of civilization. Thus Christianity goes on demonstrating the sovereignty of the ethical and spiritual over the political and the commercial, developing moral crises in which her own influence comes to be recognised as potent. And it is questionable whether any vast upheaval has occurred since the birth of Christ which has not been in some real sense the result of His teachings and has not contributed to their wider dissemination. This I hold to be alike true of the convulsions that crushed the Roman Empire, of the agitations and struggles that wrecked the dominance of feudalism, of the catastrophies that characterised the French Revolution, and of all the strange and violent antagonisms which have led to the unity of Italy and to the conquest of the Soudan. But it may be asked, Is there to be a final and widespread crisis involving, not isolated nations, but the existing civil order everywhere, both east and west, among civilized and barbarous people alike? The probabilities point in that direction; and the Scriptures seem to be decisively on its side. "Sun and moon are to be darkened, the stars of heaven are to fall before the great and notable day of the Lord." Armageddon precedes the millennium. Scenes of conflict and anguish are announced as opening the way to the final Gospel triumph. Anyone can see the utter impossibility of realising the reign of righteousness under present social and political conditions, whether in America or Europe, in lands civilized or lands blighted by heathenism. And there seems to be a growing consciousness that something critical is about to take place, because it ought to take place; and governments and leaders are apprehensive lest they should go down in the crash. They are voting more cannon, new explosives, fresh levies, stronger fortifications, and are encouraging inventors to devise novel means of destruction; but they are not adopting the true defence — "righteousness exalteth a nation"; "God is our refuge, a present help in time of trouble." And yet with all their expenditures and preparations they are not at ease. "The hearts of the nations are failing them for fear." Moreover, in all these lands, grave solicitude is felt regarding social inequalities. The control of business is rapidly passing through trusts into the hands of relatively a few chieftains in America, and the result is that opportunities for employment are diminishing, not increasing. Anyone can see that things cannot continue as they are. The social Vesuvius is already in a turmoil, and its fires and lava cannot be eternally suppressed. A crisis is inevitable. Some of the most passionless students of our times perceive the imminence of the danger. They work out this result as coolly and scientifically as a mariner works out his reckoning, and as deliberately as the weather bureau forecasts the atmospheric changes. With them it is not a question of feeling and sentiment, but of strict reasoning and logic. Given rapaciousness, heartlessness, and cold-blooded selfishness on the part of employers as the major premise in the social syllogism, and discontent, discouragement, and the ever-increasing sense of wrong on the part of the employed as the minor, and the outcome can hardly be anything else than chaos, though it may be chaos leading to a new industrial creation. I know that the taunt will not be lacking that I am preaching pessimism. No, I am an optimist and proclaiming optimism. Were I a pessimist, I should now be declaring that the image seen by Daniel's sovereign never could be destroyed; and that it would go on trampling beneath its feet of iron and clay — a mixture of militarism and materialism — the best hopes of humanity. But I have no such doleful message to deliver. My song is that of the lark; I herald the flay, not the night; but I dare not hide from myself the fact that night precedes the day. "The stone which the builders rejected," aye, "the stone cut out of the mountains," shall finally bring to an end all of these mischievous evils, aged shall "fill the whole earth." But not without a scene of conflict and experiences of sharp agony. Let us hope and pray that it may be without anarchical riots, incendiary outbreaks, and bloodshed, and may accomplish itself in one of those wonderful upheavals wrought by the patient determination of free peoples, who, enlightened by the Gospel, by their principles and convictions expressed at the polls, will bring down the lofty and exalt the lowly. Thus it may be; but however the result shall be accomplished, the spirit that shall compass it, that antagonises everything wrong at home or abroad. has been engendered by Christ's Kingdom, and the ultimate deliverance will furnish the crowning evidence of its victorious sovereignty. The responsibility of Christianity as a world-power must now claim our attention, or this discussion would fail of its purpose. The prophet tells us that in the days of the ancient kings God set up a kingdom. To me the beginnings of this creation antedate the appearance of Christ. Every prediction that announced it, every psalm that chanted its glories, and every providence that prepared the world for its manifestations, were as the digging of foundations; or, better still, as the felling of timber in the forests, and the disinterring of reeks in the quarry for the construction of this everlasting sanctuary. And I believe that still the God of Heaven is setting up a kingdom. Generals and soldiers are lauded and rewarded as the builders of empires; but the missionaries and evangelists, with all the lowly souls that are helping in their enterprise, are usually ignored or are misunderstood by society that still walks by the light of its carnal vision. And yet these obscure labourers are building up a kingdom that shall not be moved, and are establishing a world-power whose beneficence and beauty transcends the highest excellencies of all earthly imperialisms. May I not remind you by what God has already wrought through His people that there is a responsibility resting on the kingdom to yet further fall in with His plans, and to co-ordinate itself to His Spirit? If the claims of humanity can appropriately be pressed home on the conscience of a secular power, how much more are they entitled to weight by the spiritual. Responsibility is an attribute of sovereignty. Do we, as Christians, realise ours? What we need to-day is a quickened conscience in our churches. An aroused conscience would solve all difficulties; provide adequate missionary income, supply the brightest type of workers, and provoke an activity at home and abroad which would speedily bring to an end the reign of darkness. 1. This responsibility can only be met by liberality, and not by retrenchment. The church should be as wise as the state. Alas! her financiers have too frequently been given, when financial emergencies have arisen, to talk approvingly of retrenchment. If there is a spectacle offensive to Heaven and contemptible before men, it is that of professed disciples living like Dives and begrudging the crumbs which fall from their affluence into the missionary collection for poor Lazarus. Let us recognise the truth. The truth is, the church has money enough to fulfil her responsibilities at home and abroad. She has not enough for wastefulness or extravagance, or even for sentimental experimenting; but she has ample resources for the evangelisation of the entire world. But this wealth was not bestowed that it might shut God out; and yet it will assuredly do so if it is not expended as He has planned and directed. Its accumulation ought once and for all to teach that the church is bound to prosecute her work, not by the measure of her offerings, but by the measure of her possessions. 2. But more than this, our responsibility can only be honoured by combination, and not by isolation. The unsocial communities have been violently disturbed of late. China's great wall has fallen; Japan has emerged from her solitude; and it is claimed that the United States can no longer refrain from joining the European Powers in their confederate activities. The progress of this race is wonderful. It controls ever one-third of the earth's surface. Prof. Marsh has said: "More than one-half of the letters mailed and carried by the universal postal system are written, mailed, and read by the English-speaking populations"; and they distribute more than two-thirds of all Bibles and Testaments published; and in literature and general intelligence they excel all that is found among other people. But it must not be supposed that every aspect of this great branch of the human family is attractive or promising. Far from it. Even now, after centuries of training, it displays much of the spirit of the Vikings and of the Heligoland pirates, and it is constantly in danger of defying force. For the history of its progress and aggrandisement is in no small measure the history of violence and aggression. If isolation is fast becoming impossible between nations, and particularly between Great Britain and the United States, it ought to be equally impossible between denominations. Fast is it becoming so. Missionary congresses and federation of churches are helping to draw into one holy alliance the diverse and separated forces of the living God. Something more than independency of action and enthusiasm of spirit is demanded, if the claims of Christianity as a world-power are to be substantiated. But while I speak thus, I realise that organisations, however complete and indispensable, can never supersede the zeal and personal endeavour of the individual. Man is grander than a machine, and the religious machine is, after all, only a supplement to the man. What we need to-day is, that while we sustain our missionary societies we likewise develop all the resources of the individual. Obligations cannot be vicariously met. The hour has arrived for personal decision and consecration. Two tendencies are observable to-day. The one is toward secular imperialism. It is the dream of nationalities in the old world, and is not without charm for ourselves in the new. Success along this line apart from religion is freighted with ultimate mischief and peril. But the other trend is more encouraging and more ennobling; it is toward the triumphant imperialism of Christianity. For which shall we labour? I am not saying that they are necessarily inconsistent with each other; but so far as grandeur and sublimity are concerned, I would rather devote myself to the second than to the first. Would not you? As for me, I would rather stand with Livingstone, Carey, Marshman, Judson, than I would with Clive, Hastings, and Lawrence; and I would rather in the end be associated with Christ and His apostles than I would with Caesar and the legions thundering at his heels. (J. G. Lorimer, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. WEB: In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.