news, dwarfing, enslaving, maddening--news to the child-heart of the
dreariest damnation. Doubtless some elements of the gospel are mixed up
with it on most occasions of its announcement; none the more is it the
message received from him. It can be good news only to such as are
prudently willing to be delivered from a God they fear, but unable to
accept the gospel of a perfect God, in whom to trust perfectly.

The good news of Jesus was just the news of the thoughts and ways of the
Father in the midst of his family. He told them that the way men thought
for themselves and their children was not the way God thought for
himself and his children; that the kingdom of heaven was founded, and
must at length show itself founded on very different principles from
those of the kingdoms and families of the world, meaning by the world
that part of the Father's family which will not be ordered by him, will
not even try to obey him. The world's man, its great, its successful,
its honorable man, is he who may have and do what he pleases, whose
strength lies in money and the praise of men; the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven is the man who is humblest and serves his fellows the
most. Multitudes of men, in no degree notable as ambitious or proud,
hold the ambitious, the proud man in honour, and, for all deliverance,
hope after some shadow of his prosperity. How many even of those who
look for the world to come, seek to the powers of this world for
deliverance from its evils, as if God were the God of the world to come
only! The oppressed of the Lord's time looked for a Messiah to set their
nation free, and make it rich and strong; the oppressed of our time
believe in money, knowledge, and the will of a people which needs but
power to be in its turn the oppressor. The first words of the Lord on
this occasion were:--'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven,'