And, therefore,
everything which He ever did, and everything which He ever spoke, had
to do with this one great work of His. This parable, therefore,
which you heard read in the gospel for to-day, has to do with the
kingdom of God, and is an example of the laws of it.
Now, what is the kingdom of God? It is worth our while to consider.
For at baptism we were declared members of the kingdom of God; we
were to renounce the world, and to live according to the kingdom of
God. The kingdom of God is simply the way in which God governs men;
and the world is the way in which men try to manage without God's
help or leave. That is the difference between them; and a most awful
difference it is. Men fancy that they can get on well enough without
God; that the ways of the world are very reasonable, and useful, and
profitable, and quite good enough to live by, if not to die by. But
all the while God is King, let them fancy what they like; and this
earth, and everything on it, from the king on his throne to the gnat
in the sunbeam, is under His government, and must obey His laws or
die. We are in God's kingdom, my good friends, every one of us,
whether we like it or not, and we shall be there for ever and ever.
And our business is, therefore, simply to find out what are the laws
of that kingdom, and obey those laws as speedily as possible, and
live for ever thereby, lest, if we break them, and get in their way,
they should grind us to powder.
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